Soon after Li Heng arrived in Lingwu, Li Siye's eldest son, Li Chongyun, arrived in Lingwu with three thousand dragon troops and a large amount of property.

At this time, Li Heng's crown prince Liu led the north from Ma Weiyi in Xingping County to Lingwu, and suffered several attacks by rebel stragglers and bandits, and there were only a few hundred people left in Lingwu. And Guo Ziyi, the envoy of Shuofang Jiedu, also led a large army to fight the rebels in the Hedong area, and his belongings were extremely shabby at the moment.

The Long Xiang Army led by Li Chongyun is tantamount to sending charcoal in the snow to him, and the money sent to prepare for the enthronement ceremony is indispensable for Zhang Luo to spend money, which can be regarded as solving his urgent need.

Li Heng excitedly helped him up from the ground and said with relief: "Your father is really a lonely benefactor, you are not simple, you are so capable at a young age. Lone gave an order and ordered you to be the general of the Longxiang Army and escort you. ”

Li Jingzhong stood behind Li Heng and coughed quietly, Li Heng pretended not to hear, and led his two sons to Li Chongyun, who hurriedly visited them one by one.

"This is Wang Yu of Guangping, this is Wang Yu of Jianning, and in the future, our two families will be close to each other, and you should be like brothers."

Li Heng's two sons are also very good at things, showing a very affectionate attitude towards Li Chongyun, after he became acquainted with the two older county kings, he turned his head to look at the Yonghe county lord who was sitting in the pavilion and making medicine, but the gauze curtain blocked the view and was a little shadowy. Yonghe, perhaps sensing his gaze, gently lifted the gauze tent and smiled charmingly, then put it down and continued to lower his head to pound the medicine.

Li Yu gave his brother Li Yu a look knowingly, and the two brothers shirked the matter, hugged their shoulders and left, so that Li Chongyun could have the opportunity to go to the pavilion to meet the county lord.

On July 12, Li Heng announced his ascension to the throne on the south gate tower of Lingwu City, changed the year name to the first year of Zhide, and honored Li Longji, who was far away in Shuzhong, as the emperor, and could not wait to send an envoy to Shuzhong to inform Li Longji on the same day.

He was not just anxious to assert his power, but was planning for the financial revenues of the central power of the provisional imperial court.

Before the rebels captured Liangjing, the taxes from the south and north of the Yangtze River were transferred to Luoyang through the canal, and then transported from Luoyang to Chang'an by the Guangtong Canal, and now Luoyang and Chang'an have fallen one after another. If you want the provisional imperial court to get the supply of Jianghuai, Shuzhong, and Hanzhong taxes, you can only let Jianghuai's taxes travel up to Hanzhong through the Han River, and then from Hanzhong to Fufeng County through Chencang Road, and then transfer from Fufeng County to Lingwu.

Once he declares to Shuzhong that he is the core of power now, then the taxes of Hanzhong and Jianghuai can only flow in one direction of Lingwu, even if Xuanzong's small court occupies all the taxes and taxes in Shuzhong, the wealth of these two places is enough to support him in the war against the rebels.

It's just that Fufeng County is still in the hands of the rebel general Li Guiren's subordinates, and the other party will defend this place at all costs, hoping that Li Siye can take the recovery of Fufeng County as the goal of the first battle in the pass.

One day, Li Heng pinched his brows and buried his head in the palace to meditate, and Fang Fang Hong, the soldier of the army, gradually walked in from outside the palace gate, stood outside the palace and excitedly crossed his hands and said: "Your Majesty, you see who is coming." ”

He stepped over the threshold and walked out of the steps of the palace, and saw a white-clothed Taoist standing at the door from a distance, wearing a green jade hibiscus crown, passing back and forth with a meridian hairpin, holding the dust in his hand and smiling.

Li Heng's tears almost took out of his eyes, and he hurriedly walked down the steps, and said excitedly: "Changyuan! ”

The young Taoist stepped forward and leaned down to bow down: "Mountain man Li Mi see Your Majesty." ”

Li Heng hurriedly helped him up, and walked towards the hall while holding his hand, while telling the pain of parting: "Since I arrived in Lingwu from Xingping, I have been sending people to look for you in Zhongnan Mountain, and I didn't expect to see Mr. today." ”

The two sat cross-legged in front of the screen in the hall, Li Heng's previous excitement had faded, and he became sad again: "Since the fall of Tongguan and the fall of Chang'an, the situation has been getting sluggish day by day. The battle of Tongguan caused the loss of the elite forces of Jingshi and Longyou, and the only troops owned by the imperial court were Li Siye's Hexi Army and Guo Ziyi's Shuofang Army, and now there is also the Hedong Army established by Li Guangbi relying on the Chishui Army. What worries me now is that Fufeng County is still in the hands of the rebels, which will cause the passage of Hanzhong, Jianghuai, and Shuzhong to be interrupted, and the imperial court will be unable to continue. ”

Li Mi clapped his hands and smiled: "Then Li Mi came here today, and he can relieve half of His Majesty's sorrows." ”

"Oh, how do you say that?" Li Heng's face was slightly red, and his face was full of anticipation.

"I rushed from Zhongnan Mountain in the Qinling Mountains, and on the way I heard that Li Siye had led a large army to capture Fufeng County, and although Dasanguan was still in the hands of the rebels, it had cut off the connection with Guanzhong. I guess he wanted to block the pass and send reinforcements, waiting for Li Guiren in the garden to come to attack and help the wind. ”

Li Heng was overjoyed after hearing this: "I think that when I was in the Qiandi in the past, there were many people close to me, but I was weak and incompetent and could not protect them, Huangfu Weiming, Wei Jian, and Wang Zhonghei have all become old people, and now only you and Heiye are still standing with me, and today I have nothing to rely on, but rely on you." ”

Li Mi hurriedly bowed to the ground: "Your Majesty, don't say that, now that the country is in chaos, whether it is public or private, we should do our best to assist you." ”

Li Heng sighed again and said: "I heard that this Li Guiren is the righteous son of An Lushan's tent, who is in charge of Fanyang's elite Luohe and Tongluo and Khitan cavalry, known as Youyan Iron Cavalry with 50,000 horses, which is unstoppable. I am afraid that Li Siye's Hexi Army will suffer at his hands. ”

Li Mi got up and paced in the room and said: "Your Majesty can rest assured, no matter how strong the soldiers and horses are, they also need good generals, Li Siye is the only remaining famous general in the Kaiyuan Tianbao period, these generals under An Lushan, such as Li Guiren, Cui Qianyou, Tian Qianzhen and others are not worthy of giving him boots, besides, the world's strong army is all in Longyou and Youyan, and our army will definitely win a big victory in this battle." ”

"So good! If you can win Fufeng County, this game of chess in Guanzhong will be alive! Only then will there be a chance to recover Chang'an! Supporting the wind, supporting the wind, Dapeng can only take off when there is wind, which is really not very elegant to hear. This was originally the birthplace of the Zhou Dynasty, Wen Wang Ji Faxing Zhou used to have Fengming Qishan, in the Spring and Autumn Period, Qin Xianggong established the foundation of the Qin State here, and the daughter of Qin Mugong made the jade flute to usher in the allusion of the history of the flute to ride the phoenix, it is better to change the name to Fengxiang County, and Chencang County was also renamed Baoji. I wrote an edict at this time, and at the same time appointed Li Siye as the general manager of the Guannei Dao march, temporarily presiding over the affairs of Fengxiang! ”

……

Li Siye soon got the edict sent by Li Heng from Lingwu, although Huang Juan did not mention any worries about the battle situation, but he changed the name of Fufeng to Fengxiang, and Chen Cang to Baoji, and appointed himself as the general manager of the Guannei Dao march, presumably very concerned about the outcome of this battle.

At this time, a scout came to the front of the council chamber, knelt on the ground and crossed his hands, and said, "The Tang Cavalry is here to report!" The rebels gathered 60,000 troops from Chang'an and Xianyang counties and set out in the direction of Fufeng County. ”

Li Siye nodded, ordered the scouts to retreat, and ordered the guards to call Zang Xiye.

"Doctor, you're looking for me."

He beckoned Zang Xiye to him, pointed to the map of Guanzhong and said: "You led the six thousand elite cavalry of your department to Qiyang County, and ordered the county order and the county soldiers to abandon the county seat and retreat all the way to the county town. Your 6,000 men are lying in ambush near the Baiquliu Bridge, waiting for the enemy's army to pass by, and then killing them in ambush when they are defeated and passing by. ”

"Whoa!"

After sending Zang Xiye and his troops away, Li Siye came to the outside of the county town to check the layout of the two earthen enclosed camps on the left and right of the city. Because the basalt cannon was too heavy, it took a lot of effort to only put six cannons on the city wall, in order to increase the firepower allocation, Li Siye ordered people to ram four turret-type fortresses at the four corners of the Fengxiang city wall, rammed the cannons in advance, and only dug out square holes at the muzzle of one door gun.

There were no doors in these four earthen fortifications, and the personnel were hung down through the four corners of the city walls, and even the shells and charges were fished from pulley supports. The cannon contains only two types of ammunition, one of which is a ball shell with a fuse, and the other is a variety of sharp iron fragments filled into the muzzle of the gun, which is ignited and scattered at close range like a troll.

The location of the ramparts is also extremely tricky, as they appear to be connected to the city walls, but they are independent of each other. If the enemy attacks the city, it will be attacked by the earthen artillery, and if the enemy attacks the earthen fortress, it will also be attacked by the wall, and the artillery in the earthen fortress will bring powerful damage to the enemy whether it is a little farther away or fired at close range.

On the 20th, Li Guiren and An Shouzhong led 60,000 troops to Qiyang County with siege baggage, and continued to advance after finding that there was no trace in the county.

An Shouzhong's infantry formation was located in the center, and the iron cavalry led by Li Guiren was on both sides to support, and there were thousands of banners hunting and hunting, all of them were full of energy and eyeing each other, and they looked really elite. An Shouzhong waved the flag, and the crossbowmen pushed a row of dozens of Fuyuan crossbows to within a distance of 300 steps from the city wall, and there were several rows of crossbow arrows with crossbows.

What other weapon is more lethal and suppressive than a crossbow arrow?