On the ancient road in front of the city gate, a man rode a horse and stepped on the dust towards Xingyang City, and when he came to the front of the city, he shouted: "The rebels are coming!" An Lushan is here! ”

He was hit by an arrow in the arm, and the blood flowed freely, but he shouted all the way and went in the direction of Taishou Mansion along the straight road in the city. But some of the people who heard the shouts ran to their homes, gathered up and fled. A child was sitting on the ground and crying, when he heard the word An Lushan, he immediately covered his mouth to stop crying, rolled up from the ground, stepped forward and grabbed his mother's hand and ran wildly.

Taishou Cui Wuxu led thousands of county soldiers and recruited brave soldiers to wait outside the gate of Taishou Mansion, and waited until the horse rode to the front, dragged the reins of the horse and jumped off the horse and knelt on one knee to report: "Report, Cui Taishou!" ”

"How's it going? Where did the rebels go and how many of them were there? Cui Wuxu asked with a worried face.

"The rebels marched into Xingyang in two ways, and they were already forty miles away. On the official road, the banner hunting is like a cloud covering the sun, the sound of war horses and drums resounded all around, and the smoke and dust on the loess road stretched for dozens of miles, and the momentum was huge, and it was impossible to estimate. ”

Taishou gasped, kicked back half a step, and the surrounding county soldiers and soldiers Cao officials and soldiers were all pale: "The enemy army is so powerful, but we only have a few thousand people, how can we resist?" ”

Cui Wuxu pulled out the horizontal knife at his waist and said to the servant, "Go to the courtyard and carry things out!" ”

The servants carried several boxes out of the courtyard and opened them one by one, which contained silk and satin, copper coins, celadon and women's jewelry, and he pointed to these belongings and said: "This is Cui's savings for decades as an official, and now all of them are rewarded to the brothers, hoping that the brothers can defend the city with all their strength and kill the enemy." Xingyang is the barrier of Luoyang, the eastern capital, if Xingyang dies, the eastern capital is also in danger! My Han family's territory and palace, how can it be owned by the reverse Hu, you and I are both Han family men, and we should have the blood of Han family men! ”

Everyone said: "Too high-minded, how can we not obey!" ”

Cui Wuxu led the soldiers up the city tower with a horizontal sword, scattered at the battlements of the city wall, and looked at the end of the earth in the distance, billowing smoke and dust had already risen up. A series of crimson flags appeared in their field of vision, two iron horsemen took the lead in approaching the city wall from the left and right, and the infantry army gradually formed a formation, and the jumpers slapped their shields with their swords, making a threatening sound of gold and stone. The strong men beating the war drums were bareback and bare-shouldered in the winter, and the sound of the cowhide drums was like thunder, and the sound shook on the bile of the brave men defending the city.

Seeing this picture of thousands of jackals running, try to ask who would not be frightened, Cui Taishou raised his courage and said loudly: "Brothers, prepare wood and stones, let these traitors taste the taste!" ”

The rebels did not pause when they reached the city, the sound of trumpets sounded and pushed the siege stairs towards the city, and the drums became more and more urgent, but the soldiers on the city wall were already frightened and weak, and some even fell off the city wall. The rebels climbed the city walls through siege ladders, stormed the city and opened the gates.

In less than a morning, the rebels broke through the four gates of Xingyang and tied Cui Taishou and a cadre of officials to the city gate. An Lushan's iron car arrived, he probed from the car, reached out to hold the tassel of the canopy above his head, and asked coldly, "Who are these people?" ”

An Shouzhong rode a horse next to him and bowed his head and said, "Xingyang Taishou Cui Wuxu is extremely staffy. ”

"Killed."

The knife and axe hand pounced from the rear and raised the knife and fell, Cui Taishou and others fell in a pool of blood, An Lushan drove the iron car over his corpse, and laughed loudly: "Hahahahaha, the mantis arm is a car, and you can't do it!" ”

……

The commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Rongwang Li Wan, died of illness in the army, and was sent back to Chang'an by Gao Xianzhi for burial, and the morale of the Eastern Expeditionary Army gradually declined. When Gao Xianzhi heard that the rebels had entered Xingyang, he hurriedly asked Bian Lingcheng to lead a part of him to stay in Shaanxi County, and he led most of the Eastern Expeditionary Army to Wujiaoguan Pass to block the rebels with geographical advantages.

There were more than 20,000 Guangcai and flying cavalry under his command, with excellent armor and strong war horses, which was the strongest combat force in the Beijing division except for the Longwu army. It's just that the forbidden army of the Son of Heaven seems to be a little more rebellious these days, and even he, Gao Xianzhi, the deputy marshal, can't afford it, let alone the bravery of the rest of the border troops and temporary recruits.

Therefore, three bifurcated ropes and a chain of contempt were formed in the Tianwu army of the Eastern Expedition, and the Guangqi Feiqi looked down on the border army, and the border army looked down on the brave people who were temporarily recruited. Gao Xianzhi knew that these people and the rebel army were by no means opponents, so he built a camp at Wujiao Pass to consolidate the defense line.

In order to avoid internal contradictions, he separated the Guangcai Flying Cavalry from the border army and the temporary recruitment, each set aside a defensive area to hold on, and went to each battalion to give lectures to stimulate the general's morale. can pinch these rabble together, and be able to do this, Gao Xianzhi can indeed be regarded as a famous general.

An Lushan's three-way army rushed to Wujiao Pass in advance, and took advantage of the Tang army's unstable foothold to launch an attack, and the iron cavalry charged several times at the weak point of Chengguan. Although Zhuang Yong was afraid of strong enemies, Gao Xianzhi used border soldiers to form a supervision team and personally defended and supervised the battle at the head of the city. The two armies fought fiercely from morning to afternoon, and Tian Chenghe's vanguard Henghai lost many soldiers and shot all the arrows, and the city wall was pierced into a hedgehog by arrows, but it was always difficult to overcome.

An Lushan personally brought Yan Zhuang to supervise the battle, and the two rode war horses to check the Tang army configuration of Wugao Pass from afar, Yan Zhuang pointed to the city and smiled: "Wugao Pass can be broken." ”

An Lushan and Tian Chengsi inquired about the way to break the pass, and Yan Zhuang Yao pointed to the city wall and said: "Lord and general, please see, Gao Xianzhi will recruit soldiers and soldiers, border soldiers, Guangcai and flying cavalry to guard the pass, and it will definitely be impossible to integrate the contradictions of the various armies." Which army's defense zone did the loyal general think was the easiest to breach? ”

Tian Chengsi replied: "It should be the strongest in the wide cavalry, followed by the border army, and the weakest in recruiting soldiers. ”

Yan Zhuang said with a smile: "The general is poor, although the Guangqi flying cavalry is well-armored and has complete weapons, but it is stationed in Beijing all the year round, and it is not practiced in conquest, and most of the children of Chang'an are far inferior to the border army." Although the newly recruited soldiers were weak, Gao Xianzhi focused on personally supervising the battle, which could be regarded as making up for the gap. The people of the world do not suffer from inequality, and the general might as well readjust the offensive, feint against the border soldiers and new soldiers, and focus on the fierce attack on the broad cavalry and flying cavalry, and this pass will be broken. ”

An Lushan claimed to be good, immediately allocated troops to start knocking on the pass, and ordered the Gaoyang army to use the Fuyuan crossbow to focus on taking care of the Guangcai and flying cavalry on the city.

Gao Xianzhi retreated in defeat, recollected the remnants, fought again with the rebels, and retreated to Luoyang City.

On December 12, An Lushan's nine-way army gathered under Luoyang City, attacked the city from all sides, broke through the four gates and entered the city, and burned and looted. Gao Xianzhi led the remnants to retreat from Yuanxi.

Henan Yin Da Xi Xun led Luoyang officials to surrender An Lushan, and only Li Xin and Lu Yi led the troops to fight to the death. Li Xin said to Lu Yi: "We are all favored by the imperial court, although we are powerless, but we should die for the country." ”

They gathered up hundreds of remnants and fought fiercely with the rebels in the alleys of the city, but they were routed by the rebels in an instant, and they fled into the city.

The two did not flee after the defeat, Li Xin dismissed all the small servants of the Fuzhong family and sat alone in the main hall, Lu Yi handed over the official seal to his wife and children in advance, and sent them to disguise themselves and fled to Chang'an from the trail, while he wore court clothes and went to the Yushitai to sit quietly and wait for the rebels to come to the door.

In the early afternoon, the rebels have fully occupied Luoyang, if you look down from the sky, this thousand-year-old imperial capital is full of black smoke, the rebels in the city rape and plunder, burn down the houses, the people are miserable.

An Lushan took the Tieyu to enter the city from Dingding Gate, and will enter Ziwei Palace City from the main road through the Tianjin Bridge on Luoshui, and the emperor's road of this great careerist seems to be one step closer.

His henchmen and eighteen generals followed behind him on war horses, and the left and right Marquis Yu opened the way from the front with the flag and lined up the guard of honor, stepping on the corpses piled up in the middle of the road, and marching towards the Luoyang Palace in his dreams.