readx; The early morning mist is like cow's milk on both sides of the Mianman River, the large wheat fields have been dark green, and the strong seedlings have been tillered into ears, this is the winter wheat area, unlike the south, after the winter wheat harvest in May, corn will be planted here, instead of rice, it is the busy season in the fields, although the early morning fog has not yet dissipated, but farmers can be seen everywhere busy. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

This is the west of the old pass in the east of the river, belongs to the territory of Shiai County, Taiyuan Prefecture, the towering Taihang Mountain can be seen vaguely in the distance, and it is also the entrance of the east of the river in Jingcheng, and the place where the soldiers must fight.

A rapid sound of horses' hooves came from afar, the sound of horses' hooves was getting closer and closer, and a group of cavalry galloped from the west, galloping, dispelling the early morning fog, and several villagers in the field couldn't help but look up, and one of the older farmers was even more worried.

"Uncle Chang Gung, I heard that there will be a war recently, will it come to us?" A young man asked worriedly.

Another middle-aged man smiled and said, "Shiro, you are a militia group, don't you know if you want to fight or not?" Come and ask us. ”

"Uncle Mo doesn't know, although I am a militia group, I only participate in the training on time, whether I fight or not, how can I know? I saw that Uncle Chang Geng was worried, and I thought that he was older and more knowledgeable, so I couldn't help but ask him. ”

The old farmer named Chang Geng sighed and said: "I just feel that from yesterday to today, five groups of cavalry have passed, all of them are soldiers who report the news, if it weren't for the accident in Jingcheng, how could they be so in a hurry, I estimate that An Lushan has already sent troops to Hedong." ”

The old farmer's words made everyone look at each other, and someone shouted: "This wheat is not good, if the thieves come, won't the wheat be completely destroyed?" ”

Some people thought a little more and panicked: "The thieves and soldiers are all barbaric, they kill people and set fire to rob women, and there are young women in the family, run away!" Leave the wheat alone. ”

Everyone was talking about it, some said they wanted to run, some said they were waiting for officers and soldiers, but no one made up their minds. The ground beat the gong and shouted: "Everyone go back to the village first, there is an urgent matter to discuss, go back quickly!" ”

"Uncle Mo, we can't go!"

"Hey! How can you be so unresponsive? Let's go! ”

Everyone panicked, packed up their things and ran towards the village.

The homes of these villagers are not far from the front, called Manbei Village, is a large village of more than 300 households, composed of five large clans, and there are more than a dozen individual households that do not belong to these five large clans, there are not many young people in the village, some young people went to Taiyuan to make a living, and the other part joined the army, and the rest of the descendants joined the militia group, a total of about 120 people, together with the young people from nearby villages, about 500 people formed a militia battalion.

At this time, under a few old locust trees at the entrance of the village, it was densely packed with men, women, and children, and the elders of the five clans in the middle were in a circle, listening to a young official with a serious expression.

The young official's surname was Zhao, and he was the head of the Bing Cao of the county government of Shiai County, and he was followed by Li Zheng of Manbei Village, who rushed back from the wheat field one after another, and the villagers were all crowded into the crowd.

"Folks, before dawn, all the people in our county government will go to the countryside, just received an urgent order from the Taiyuan Mansion Yan Envoy, everyone must be transferred to Taiyuan City, if you don't want to go to Taiyuan City, you can also, but you must go to Fenzhou, Jinzhou, the time is very urgent, please set off today."

"Chief Zhao, I want to ask."

An old man of the clan surnamed Mo asked: "There is still more than a month for the wheat to turn yellow, is it possible for the officers and soldiers to hold the old pass and prevent the thieves from entering the east of the river?" ”

"I don't know the specific situation, but there are already more than 10,000 officers and soldiers on the Guguan side, since I say so, I estimate that the Guguan is almost impossible to hold."

Speaking of this, the young official raised his voice again, "Fellow villagers, everyone knows the brutality of the thieves, the place where they passed through is ten rooms and nine empty, many of them are Khitans, Xi people, fierce and brutal, just like beasts, in order to save their lives, everyone don't care about the wheat, there is also news from Taiyuan Mansion, the imperial court has decided that the rent of Taiyuan Mansion will be free this year, and everyone will be transferred to Taiyuan City, there are tents to live in, there is porridge from the government, and after defeating the thief army, we will rebuild our homes, without further ado, everyone hurry up!" ”

The young official had to go to several other villages, and he mobilized for a while before riding away.

As soon as the officials left, the entrance of the village suddenly became a clamoring, the cries of children, the shouts of women, and the scolding.

"Patriarch, whether we can go or not!" Several people with the surname Anxious shouted loudly.

Several old men discussed it and said to their respective clansmen: "Let's go back and pack up our things first!" Let's talk about it again. ”

This sentence was like stabbing a hornet's nest, and the more than 1,000 people gathered at the entrance of the village dispersed at once, and everyone ran to their homes in a panic.

Half an hour later, the patriarchs of the five clans made a formal decision to immediately withdraw to Taiyuan, and then the various clans also discussed the specific evacuation plan, mainly to gather the carriages, count the number of women, children and the elderly, and the specific distribution plan of rations.

At noon, more than 100 people from the smallest clan surnamed Mo in Manbei Village began to evacuate, more than 20 carriages were uniformly deployed by the clan, the old people and children got into the carriage, the women and men walked, the carriage was full of valuable things from every household, as well as bedding and clothes and other necessities, and began to march to Taiyuan City, which was 300 miles away.

The carriage went on the official road, and at this time the official road was already full of people, and the black crowd stretched for dozens of miles, and groups of people who fled from the county seat and from the villages in all directions converged, and most of them were silent, with a blank and worried about the future, and they went to the west.

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The battle for the Chengtian army has been carried out for three days and three nights, and the Chengtian army has been fighting for the city of Niangzi Pass, which is named after the women's army of Princess Pingyang in the early Tang Dynasty.

Chengtian army garrison city is known as the ninth pass of the Great Wall, dangerous mountains, river valleys, the Great Wall, built a dangerous city, it is also the last Xiongguan of Jingcheng into the east of the river, garrisoned by a Chengtian army of 3,000 people, An Lushan's nearly 200,000 troops entered Jingcheng, has been in the army under the city, in order to compete for this Xiongguan, the main general An Qingxu has invested nearly 80,000 troops, and Guo Ziyi has also successively increased the number of troops in the pass, so that the number of defenders has reached 10,000.

The battle has been carried out on the fourth day, the Chengtian army has been under the city is full of corpses, blood flowing, the Yan army has been killed and wounded nearly 15,000 people, and the Guo Ziyi department guarding the pass has also been killed and wounded more than sixty percent, the originally strong Xiongguan has also become full of holes, and the garrison city has been precarious.

At noon, a terrible battle had just ended, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of blood, and there were horrific corpses and burned city stairs.

In the pass, the soldiers defending the city were exhausted and leaning against the wall to rest, the city was in a mess, there were arrows and stones everywhere, the puddles of blood were shocking, hundreds of dead soldiers and nearly a thousand wounded soldiers were carried down, after four days and three nights of fighting, the 10,000 defenders were left less than 3,000 people, and everyone understood that if the reinforcements did not come again, it would be a matter of time before the garrison was lost.

The commander of the Tang army is Guo Ziyi's general Lu Sigong, a general in the Shuofang army, at this time, Lu Sigong, who was wearing armor, took dozens of soldiers to inspect the city, his mood was very heavy, he had sent five cavalry teams in a row to Taiyuan for help, but he had just received an order from Guo Ziyi, ordering him to abandon the Chengtian army to defend the city.

Lu Sigong sighed secretly in his heart, he could understand Guo Ziyi's decision, it was not that he didn't want to hold the garrison, but the Yan army had too many troops, and the disparity between the forces of the two sides was huge, and it was no longer realistic to want to hold the garrison.

He slowly walked to the head of the city, staring into the distance, the mountains in the distance were continuous, a narrow passage passed through the mountain, there was Jingcheng, the narrowest place only allowed one person and one horse to walk, but from Jingcheng, the terrain immediately became open, forming a trumpet-shaped valley opening, in this valley several miles wide and more than ten miles long, nearly 100,000 Yan troops were densely distributed, and there were 100,000 Yan troops in the Jingcheng Gorge did not come.

On the one hand, Guo Ziyi's military order he did not dare to disobey, and on the other hand, he did not want to become a Tang general who let the Yan army enter Hedong, if the Yan army burned and looted in Hedong Road, the history books of later generations will inevitably write a heavy stroke: the thief army Xikou Chengtian army garrisoned the city, and Lu Sigong abandoned Guanxi and fled.

The tremendous pressure made it difficult for him to make a decision, but he also knew that if he did not withdraw, his army would inevitably be annihilated, and the end of his path would be to take righteousness.

At this time, a soldier rushed forward, "General Lu, Taiyuan is urgent!" ”

Lu Sigong took the order, and it was Guo Ziyi's warrant, and there were only six words on the warrant: 'Abandon the pass, quickly withdraw from Taiyuan.' ’

More than a dozen officers surrounded him, "General, what should I do?" ”

Lu Sigong glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice: "The old marshal's order is to abandon the pass and retreat, what is your opinion?" ”

Everyone looked at each other, no one spoke, and it could be seen that they didn't want to defend the pass, since Guo Ziyi had an order, everyone's hearts were shaken.

A Lang general said: "Nearly seventy percent of the soldiers have been lost, and the morale is dead, so it is not appropriate to fight for a long time." ”

"Is that what you all mean?"

Everyone nodded silently, and one said: "The military order is like a mountain, and we dare not disobey the old commander's military order." ”

Lu Sigong was silent for a moment, and finally he sighed and said, "Okay! It's up to me. ”

He immediately ordered in a deep voice: "Pass my order, the wounded soldiers will withdraw first, and abandon Kanto and retreat when it gets dark!" ”

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The sky was gradually getting dark, and on a high platform in front of the Chengtian army, An Qingxu, Li Huaixian, and Cai Xide were looking at the pass a few miles away.

As the main general of this attack on Hedong, An Qingxu was under great pressure, before this, he had never commanded an army of more than 50,000 people, but this time, his father An Lushan asked him to command an army of 200,000 and ordered him to capture Taiyuan within a month.

From the dispatch of troops half a month ago to the present, everything is going well, but the garrison in front of him has caused him to suffer the first major setback of the westward advance to Hedong, and he has lost 18,000 troops, but Xiongguan is still standing.

Although Li Huaixian and Cai Xide comforted him, it was normal to attack the Chengtian Army's garrison city, which was a one-man pass and a Xiongguan that could not be opened, with 20,000 casualties, but the huge pressure still made An Qingxu not sleep well for several nights in a row, and he didn't sleep all night last night.

Li Huaixian said in a low voice: "Little prince, I estimate that the Tang army should suffer the same heavy losses, killing three thousand enemies and losing eight hundred, and the masonry of the pass has been loosened, and if you attack it twice, the garrison should collapse." ”

An Qingxu sighed and said: "A garrison city cost me 18,000 soldiers, it took four days, I am more worried about Taiyuan City, the city is strong, can it be captured in twenty days?" ”

Cai Xide next to him said: "Little prince doesn't have to worry about the time limit, King Yan should also know that a month is difficult, I think King Yan's real intention is not to attack Taiyuan City." ”

An Qingxu and Li Huaixian were moved together, and hurriedly asked, "How do you say this?" ”

Cai Xide said slowly: "I heard what Shi Siming said before leaving, the real purpose of King Yan is for us to deal with Li Siye's Anxi army. ”

An Qingxu's eyes showed a hint of fear, coaxing them to fight Taiyuan, but in the end they let them attack the Anxi army, if this is the case, his father An Lushan will not be too dark.

"How does Shi Siming know?" Li Huaixian asked with some suspicion.

"I also asked him, and he said that he was just speculating that if he wanted to take Hedong, it would be impossible for the Anxi army to bypass it, either An Shouzhong would deal with it, or we, or we would cooperate with An Shouzhong, Guo Ziyi's army should not worry, as long as the Anxi army was defeated, Hedong would be taken."

"This Shi Siming is very cunning!"

The relationship between Li Huaixian and Shi Siming is very bad, last year Shi Siming was defeated in Hengzhou, Li Huaixian poured out his troops, defeated Guo Ziyi's army, and saved Shi Siming, but because of the emptiness of Youzhou's troops, the forage warehouse was burned, it stands to reason that Shi Siming should be grateful and bear half of the responsibility in front of An Lushan, but Shi Siming pleaded on the surface, but secretly told An Lushan that this was because Li Huaixian sent troops to exterminate the righteous army without authorization, resulting in the lack of troops in Youzhou.

Li Huaixian later learned about this, and he hated Shi Siming to the core, and the two once formed a trend of not sharing the sky, so An Lushan sent troops this time, and he would not let the two of them send troops together.

Li Huaixian sneered and said, "I guess he bought the henchmen around the prince, doesn't he like to do this?" Knowing the true intentions of the prince, so he pretended to be sick and refused to fight the Anxi army, trying to preserve his strength. ”

An Qingxu fell into deep thought, and he also believed Shi Siming's speculation a little, it was really possible to let them fight the Anxi army, but if it was to cooperate with An Shouzhong to attack the Anxi army, this would be a way to do both.

At this moment, a cavalryman galloped up and reported loudly under the high platform: "Urgent report to General An, we find that the Chengtian army has been empty in the city, and there are no defenders!" ”

The three of them were taken aback, and looked at the city together, only to see that the castle was on fire, and it was a completely defensive state, which turned out to be the empty city plan of the Tang army.

An Qingxu was extremely excited, and immediately ordered: "Order, the army will enter and occupy the Chengtian Army!" ”

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(To be continued)