readx; Li Qing'an learned the news of the loss of Xiangzhou three days later, at this time he was no longer in Luoyang, but on the way back to Chang'an, a major event also happened in Chang'an, the right minister Pei Zunqing was assassinated, the murderer committed suicide in fear of crime, and the main messenger behind the scenes is unknown. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Pei Zunqing's accidental death plunged the imperial court into chaos, and also disrupted Li Qing'an's political deployment, and he had to rush back to Chang'an to deal with the government.

At night, Li Qingan and his entourage stayed at the Xiting Post House in Shaanzhou, and this time they rushed back to Chang'an, he did not take Yang Yuhuan with him, but left her in Luoyang.

The light was soft, the room was filled with a faint sandalwood, Li Qingan sat at the table and wrote hard, sometimes stopping to meditate, sometimes sighing slightly, if Cheng Qianli was a mortal enemy with him when he was in Anxi, and at this moment, all the discord between them disappeared with Cheng Qianli's death, and Li Qing'an only had respect for the martyrs left.

He wants to write to the imperial court, give this loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty who is stubbornly guarding Xiangzhou enough glory after his death, worship the Taiwei, give the governor of Youzhou, and the Tang army who died in battle, and he will also give them the same pension as Anxi.

Li Qing'an was also full of regret, although he had already seen An Lushan's strategic intentions, repeatedly warned Guo Ziyi and Cheng Qianli, and even gave them orders in the name of the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses, but they never adopted it, and responded to themselves with silence.

Of course, Li Qing'an knew that Guo Ziyi was to transfer more Hebei people, morally speaking, he was beyond reproach for doing so, but militarily, this is undoubtedly extremely unwise, not to mention the loss of 50,000 elites in vain, but also made the Shuofang army fall into strategic passivity, at present, Guo Ziyi's 150,000 troops are dragged in Hebei, Hedong is empty, only tens of thousands of militia soldiers who have just turned into regular troops, the strength is weak, and now An Lushan's army has entered Hedong from Fukou Cheng, directly attacking Taiyuan, once Taiyuan is lost, Guo Ziyi's back road was cut off, and he was likely to be wiped out.

Li Qingan got up and walked slowly to the window, pushed open the window, it was snowing outside the window, the earth was vast, the sky and the earth were already snow-white, his eyes were very complicated, deep down, he also faintly hoped that Guo Ziyi's army would suffer a crushing defeat and use An Lushan's hand to get rid of his only military opponent in the court, but on the other hand, he didn't want the Tang army to be slaughtered and become a political victim.

It was this complex psychology of gains and losses that made him unable to help but remind Guo Ziyi several times to avoid risks, and he was worried about the loss of Taiyuan, so he urgently ordered Lei Wanchun, the governor of Yunzhou, and Xin Yunjing, the Taishou of Daizhou, to lead 20,000 troops to Taiyuan and occupy Taiyuan before Li Guiren's army.

Li Qingan sighed, hoping that Guo Ziyi would be able to retreat to Hedong in time after receiving the news of the loss of Xiangzhou, otherwise the consequences would be unpredictable.

At this time, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps outside the room, and couldn't help but turn around in surprise, only to see an urgent report from his own soldiers outside: "General, emergency information from Hengzhou." ”

"Come in and say!"

Li Qing'an's heart hung up all of a sudden, what happened in Hengzhou?

A personal soldier came in, knelt down on one knee and said: "Hebei urgent, Guo Ziyi defeated Shi Siming in Zhending, killing more than 40,000 enemies, Shi Siming's army has been defeated and retreated to Tangchang County, Dingzhou, Guo Ziyi's army is chasing at the end of the rank, and it has passed Wuji County." ”

"Ahh Li Qing'an was taken aback, he walked quickly to the table, brushed the ground and unfolded the map, Tangchang County is about three hundred miles away from Zhending, and Wuji County is at least two hundred and fifty miles away from Zhending, Li Qing'an couldn't help but secretly complain, this must be Shi Siming's news that Li Guiren's army entered Hedong, feigned defeat and lured the enemy, and led Guo Ziyi's army to go deeper, once he sent another army around Zhaozhou to enter Zhending, blocking Guo Ziyi's back road, it was useless to count Guo Ziyi's army to hold Tumen Pass, cut off his back road, An Lushan's army went north again, Guo Ziyi was very likely to be wiped out.

Thinking of this, Li Qingan ordered: "Urgently order Li Guangbi that when the army enters Hebei, it must be delayed An Lushan's army." ”

He also ordered: "Immediately fly the pigeon to send a message to Guo Ziyi, ordering him to withdraw to Hedong immediately!" ”

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The battle of Hengzhou was full of twists and turns, full of weirdness and coincidences, Li Qingan didn't guess right, Guo Ziyi's defeat of Shi Siming was not Shi Siming's feint, but Guo Ziyi's snow night sent troops and caught Shi Siming off guard. Shi Siming's army was defeated, the killed, the trampled on each other, more than 40,000 dead and wounded, lost their armor all the way, and all the tent food was discarded.

After Guo Ziyi's army chased to Wuji County, Dingzhou, he no longer pursued, his soldiers were too tired and had to rest well before they could continue to attack Shi Siming's additional troops.

That night, Guo Ziyi's army entered Wuji County, after a day and a night of fighting, the soldiers were exhausted, fell to the ground and fell asleep, there was silence all around, hundreds of sentries patrolled back and forth on the city, but Guo Ziyi could not sleep, came to the city with his hands behind his back, looking at the heavy night, he fell into deep thought.

Xiangzhou dragged An Lushan's 300,000 main army, which brought him an opportunity to fight in the north, this time Shi Siming's department was defeated, Li Huaixian's department must divide troops to reinforce, he nominally has 100,000 troops to defend Youzhou, Guo Ziyi knows, in fact, there are only 60,000 troops, and he still has to defend Youzhou, the reinforcements of the army will not be too much, just give him to eat one by one, and finally hit An Lushan's nest, cut off his grain and grass, shake his fundamentals, An Lushan will have to withdraw from Xiangzhou.

This is Guo Ziyi's strategy, he knows that Cai Xide's 100,000 troops take Xiangzhou, and An Lushan will inevitably send a heavy army to the south, so that Xiangzhou can contain most of An Lushan's army, and his main force will go out of the well into Hebei and fight him upside down in Hebei.

It should be said that there is no problem with Guo Ziyi's strategy, the key now is time, whoever can grab the time will have the initiative in the war.

A rapid sound of horses' hooves woke Guo Ziyi from his contemplation, and he looked down at the city, only to see two cavalrymen rushing towards the city gate, this is the cavalry delivering the letter.

"What's going on?"

Guo Ziyi asked loudly, in the night, he saw that the expressions of the two cavalrymen were panicked, and a bad feeling arose in his heart.

The cavalry in front reported first: "Old general, Xiangzhou news, An Lushan's army has broken through Xiangzhou, most of the 50,000 defenders have been killed, and General Cheng committed suicide." ”

"Cheng Qianli..."

Guo Ziyi closed his eyes in pain, he froze his mind and asked, "What else?" ”

"There is also news from Hedong, Li Guiren's troops defeated the 30,000 troops left behind in Taiyuan to guard Wang Chengye in Taigu County, and the 60,000 thief army is marching towards Taiyuan!"

If the loss of Xiangzhou made Guo Ziyi feel a kind of pain, then the rebel Li Guiren's troops had been killed in Taiyuan, which made him feel a kind of shock.

Guo Ziyi also thought about the possibility of Xiangzhou being lost, if Xiangzhou was lost, he would immediately retreat to Hedong, but he didn't expect An Lushan to really divide his troops to attack Hedong, and Li Qingan's warning unfortunately came true.

Guo Ziyi has the pain of falling short, as long as he is given two more days, he can turn the tide of the battle.

At this moment, another messenger rushed from a distance, shouting from afar: "Old general, something is wrong!" ”

"What happened again?"

"An Qingxu's troops suddenly returned and have now been killed in Luancheng County, Zhaozhou, and were blocked by Yan Taishou leading two thousand militia groups southward, the situation is critical, and the old general retreats quickly!"

A series of three unfavorable news made Guo Ziyi's face change greatly, especially the Anqing Xu Department that had gone south suddenly returned, and had arrived in Luancheng County, which was less than 100 miles away from Tumen Pass, if he did not retreat, the back road would be cut off, once the back road was cut off, An Lushan's army would go north, and he would be in danger of being wiped out.

Guo Ziyi was forced to have no choice but to order: "Pass my order, and the whole army will retreat immediately." ”

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Guo Ziyi's army was forced to retreat, and at the same time, Shi Siming, who was defeated and retreated to Tangchang County, also received strong reinforcements, Li Huaixian ordered Li Bao to guard Youzhou City, he personally led 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry to Dingzhou, Shi Siming immediately reorganized his troops and horses, and cooperated with Li Huaixian's elite counterattack Guo Ziyi's army, in the east of Wuji County, the Yan army defeated Guo Ziyi's 20,000 rear army in a battle, and the general Li Guoliang was injured in the left eye by Shi Siming's arrow, and fled westward wounded.

Li Huaixian led 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry to chase all the way, and caught up with the right army general Wei Boyu in Jiumen County, the two armies fought fiercely, Wei Boyu was defeated by Youzhou iron cavalry, and the Tang army was defeated.

At the same time, there was also unfavorable news from Luancheng County, Yan Gaoqing led two thousand militia groups to resist An Qingxu's 20,000 army for a day, the county seat was breached, Jiang Xiaotong and Ma Jun died in battle, Yan Gaoqing and his son Yan Jiming, Changshi Yuan Luqian and other more than a dozen people were captured and unyielding, and were brutally tortured and killed by An Qingxu.

At this time, the news of the loss of Xiangzhou, the defeat of the Hedong army, and the cut off of the back road by An Qingxu had spread throughout the Tang army, the morale of the Tang army was low, the body was exhausted, and the pursuit of Li Huaixian's 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry, the situation was extremely unfavorable to Guo Ziyi, and his army saw the critical moment of life and death.

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The North Barracks outside Youzhou City, there are more than 200 huge warehouses here, which is the important place for An Lushan to hoard grain and grass, and the most elite 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry in An Lushan are also stationed here, and at the same time, 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry are also used to defend the grain and grass warehouse.

The granary covers a vast area, surrounded by a huge barracks, divided into two parts, the east granary, the west of the granary, usually patrolled day and night by 40,000 iron horses, the guard is extremely strict, this time An Lushan did not take Youzhou iron horses to the south One of the main reasons is to worry about the loss of grain and grass.

However, Guo Ziyi's defeat of Shi Siming's department in Hengzhou caused a brief confusion in the defense of Youzhou, just as Guo Ziyi's intelligence, Li Huaixian's Youzhou garrison was indeed only 60,000 people, less than 100,000, because two Khitan armies of about 40,000 people and Xi troops escorted a large number of Hebei battle results back to Raole and Songmo, in fact, there were only 50,000 troops left in Youzhou, and 10,000 troops were sent by Li Huaixian to exterminate the righteous army in Yuxian County.

But Shi Siming's defeat made Li Huaixian have to send troops to help, otherwise, Shi Siming's whole army was annihilated, and his Youzhou may not be able to be saved, Li Huaixian on the one hand sent people to urge the army to return immediately in Yuxian, on the other hand, he ordered his henchmen to lead Li Baozhong to lead 10,000 troops to defend Youzhou, and he himself took 40,000 Youzhou iron cavalry to Dingzhou to support Shi Siming.

There are only 10,000 troops left to guard the huge Youzhou, Li Huaixian only thinks about returning in a few days, there is no Tang army near Youzhou, and there is an army going to Youzhou on the way back, and the 10,000 troops should be able to cope with it for a few days.

10,000 troops, 5,000 people guarding Youzhou City, 2,000 people distributed in various military areas, the strength is stretched, and covering an area of more than ten miles, the grain and grass warehouse that was originally guarded by 40,000 Youzhou iron horsemen is left with 3,000 people to guard, 3,000 people, which is already the limit of the troops that can be provided.

The three thousand men were divided into two parts, two thousand of them guarding the granary and the other thousand guarding the forage storehouse, and they were divided into two shifts and patrolled day and night.

But no matter how hard they tried, they still couldn't plug the huge defensive hole, and the forage warehouse had a total of eighty-four warehouses, hoarding nearly six million quintals of hay, which was the source of life for An Lushan's 400,000 war horses.

On the night of Li Huaixian's defeat of Wei Boyu in Jiumen County, Ji Sheng and other twenty-two Tang army scouts who had been lurking in Youzhou for nearly ten days were dispatched, and it was a bit incredible to say, Ji Sheng and the others were now the defenders of Lusitai Fort, and there were originally thirty garrisons in Lusitai Fort, and after being killed by Ji Sheng and others, they turned into glorious Yan troops in An Lushan's lair.

The major task given to Ji Sheng by Li Qing'an was to burn down the forage warehouse in An Lushan, they had been waiting for the opportunity, a godsend, 40,000 iron horsemen left Youzhou, and their opportunity came.

There was no need for any makeup at all, they were dressed in the armor of the Yan Army, and they had the legal waist card of the Yan Army, they swaggered to Youzhou City, and after several checks along the way, they were all unimpeded, "On the order of General Li, reinforce the grain and grass depot for defense!" ”

The reason is glossy, and it is a legitimate defender of the Lusitai fort, and the outpost cannot call the city to confirm, and the road is unimpeded.

At the time of the second watch, Ji Sheng and his entourage came to the forage warehouse in the north of Youzhou City, at this time, the forage warehouse group covering an area of nearly ten miles was only guarded by more than 500 soldiers, and there were at least 200 of the more than 400 guard towers in the camp fence.

The black shadow flashed, Xiao Xie who went to investigate rushed back like a swallow, Ji Sheng and the others hid in a forest about a hundred steps away from the forage warehouse, Ji Sheng hurriedly greeted him, "How is it?" ”

Xiao Xie pouted and said, "Ji Tou, you're thinking too much, there is no one on those dozen or so guard towers, just go in directly." ”

Ji Sheng was overjoyed and said to Xiao Xie: "You stay to guard the horses!" ”

Xiao Xie was stunned, "I'll stay?" Why? ”

"No why, this is my order! Do you dare to disobey? ”

"I see, huh!"

Xiao Xie was helpless, so she had to roll her eyes at the big brothers who were grimacing at her, and stood in the woods with a snort.

Ji Sheng waved his hand, and the twenty brothers rushed out like arrows, climbing over the unguarded fence like apes, and everyone gathered together again.

"Each of you is in charge of a warehouse, and if you can, burn as much as you can, and meet here in a quarter of an hour, remember, twenty-one of us will come in, and twenty-one will have to leave!"

The crowd dispersed again, and the cat's waist ran down the warehouse, they were all extremely sophisticated scouts, the twenty most elite selected from the first scout camp, each of them could stand alone, and in a moment they were infiltrating the warehouses full of hay.

Ji Sheng entered the No. 54 warehouse, which was the largest warehouse in the group, with 200,000 loads of hay, and each warehouse was guarded by two soldiers.

But Ji Sheng's luck was not good, he had just sneaked into the forage storehouse, but he heard two soldiers talking.

"Gorou, how much money do you have on you, can you lend me a little."

"Shit, you haven't paid back the two times you borrowed from me last time! I don't have any money for you. ”

"Don't be fucking stingy, I've been in good luck for the past two days, I will definitely be able to turn the book, tomorrow I will take you to find my friend, compensate you, borrow my usual money first, ah!"

"Let's talk about it tomorrow when I see the woman! You have that taste, I don't dare to compliment. ”

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Ji Sheng hesitated, this warehouse was very large, like a palace, and it didn't hurt for him to go to the other end, but after thinking about it, he still decided to kill the two guards....

'Wow! There was a strange noise in the haystack.

"Hey! What is the sound? ”

"Who knows, rats!"

"The rat should be over there in the granary, go and see, maybe it's a naked beauty, hehe!"

"Be your mother's spring and autumn dream, the naked beauty snake is almost the same, I'll take a look!"

Don't dare to light the fire, a guard came over in the dark, walked about a dozen steps, nothing, he cursed, found a corner to pee, and the moment he turned around, Ji Sheng pounced like lightning, covered his mouth, and cut his throat with a knife.

The guard limp down, and another guard asked, "What's the matter?" ”

"It's fine!"

Ji Sheng continued to pee, and the man scolded: "Can't you kid go far away to pee?" I want to smoke Lao Tzu to death! ”

Ji Sheng walked back to the haystack in the dark, and saw that a person had his back to him, and he was already snoring.

Ji Sheng lay down, covered his mouth, and stabbed him in the back of the heart.....

'Click! A flame appeared in his hand, he did not hesitate to light the haystack, the haystack began to burn rapidly, making a crackling sound, and when the haystack boiled about ten zhang in a radius, he turned over, jumped down from the air window, and ran towards another warehouse, this time, he didn't even enter the warehouse, lit a ball of tarpaulin, and threw it into the hay pile through the air window, followed by the next warehouse, Ji Sheng set fire to four warehouses in one go.

At this time, the warehouses were already covered with thick smoke, covering the sky, and the flames were rising to the sky in the thick smoke, and almost all the warehouses were set on fire, with scolding, shrill bells, the sound of running horses' hooves, and running soldiers everywhere....

A quarter of an hour later, a group of black shadows gathered together again from all directions, and Ji Sheng nodded again, even twenty-one of him, not a lot.

"Let's go!"

The people got out of the fence and ran into the woods.....

"Ji Tou, what a big fire!"

Xiao Xie greeted him and said with a smile: "Now, the entire Hebei Province can be seen." ”

"Let's talk about it on the road, let's go!"

Everyone turned over and got on their horses, "Ji Tou! Xiao Xie stopped him and said excitedly: "Shall we burn the grain warehouse together?" ”

Ji Sheng reined in his horse, looked into her eyes and said: "You have to remember, the first principle of our scout army is to carry out orders, and the general's instructions are very clear, burn the forage warehouse, even if there is no one on the grain warehouse, we can't burn it, this is an iron rule." ”

Xiao Xie nodded silently, she kind of understood.

"Let's go! Go to Tangxing County. ”

Twenty-two cavalry galloped on horseback, Ji Sheng glanced back at the warehouse, only to see that the fire was soaring into the sky, the flames were thirty or forty zhang, no less than the last explosion, which could be seen hundreds of miles away, he smiled, whipped the war horse, the war horse accelerated, and galloped to the south.

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The fire in the forage warehouse in Youzhou shattered Li Huaixian's dream of annihilating Guo Ziyi's department, and in great panic, he led his troops back to Youzhou overnight, and Shi Siming did not dare to pursue Guo Ziyi's army, and the army was stopped.

Guo Ziyi's army also escaped the catastrophe, he quickly reorganized the army and horses, and went to Tumen Pass to kill, at this time Anqingxu's army had just taken Shiyi County, and heard that Li Huaixian had withdrawn his army, Shi Siming stopped his troops, he did not dare to intercept Guo Ziyi alone, and also withdrew his army to return south.

In the afternoon of the next day, more than 60,000 people of Guo Ziyi's department withdrew to Tumen Pass, at this time, Li Qing'an's order arrived, Guo Ziyi knew that it was difficult for Hebei to make achievements, so he left 2,000 people to guard Tumen Pass, and the army withdrew to Hedong.

Soon, Li Guiren also received the news that An Lushan ordered him to withdraw to Hebei, and he burned and looted all the way from Luzhou to Hebei.

At the beginning of November, a snowstorm hit the land of Hebei, the ice and snow, the soldiers and horses were difficult to travel, the war was temporarily subsided in this blizzard, but the panic of insufficient forage began to spread in the army of An Lushan, more than 80,000 old and weak horses died in hunger and cold, An Lushan was helpless, so he had to go to the grassland in person, and asked the Turkic, Khitan and other departments for help and forage.

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(To be continued)