Li Siye was in Luoyang, quite far away from Xiangzhou, where the army of the Nine Roads Jiedu was located, and although the imperial court had relaxed its vigilance against him, Cui Yuan and Su Zhen were both die-hard fans of Li Heng and had to be careful.

He secretly sent Kubani to Xiangzhou to contact Yan Xiaosi, and then Yan Xiaosi secretly contacted Tian Zhen in the Anxi Army and Dai Wang in the Beiting Army, which is not to say that he can't trust Duan Xiushi and Feng Changqing, it's just that they are in a high position and are watched, and there are too many things to consider and take care of, but it is Tian Zhen and Dai Wang and other powerful factions that are more convenient to act. Since you want to do something, you have to use the safest solution.

The three of them took advantage of the night to come to the camp tent of Dai Wang of the Beiting Army, which was the place where it was least likely to be uncertain. They sat in front of the desk, the erratic oil lamp reflected the dark faces of the three people, and the schemes under the lamp were mostly bloody and treacherous.

This is the plan made by the lord, and now Hexi has lost its cities and territories one after another under the encroachment attack of Tubo, and only Liangzhou and Jiuquan, Zhangye and Dunhuang are still holding on. My Hexi army is full of Xiliang's children, so the reason for the mutiny has been found. Now that the Hexi Army has left its hometown and been transferred to the hands of eunuchs by the imperial court, the three sergeants feel that there is no way out, let alone the possibility of returning to their hometown. The eunuch in charge of the army was not sympathetic to the soldiers, and after more than three months of fierce fighting under the city, he could not make any progress, and the officers and men of the Hexi army hoped that the lord would come back to take charge of the army. ”

"The most appropriate time is when Shi Siming leads the army to rescue Xiangzhou, my Hexi military camp will quickly control Yu Chaoen and others, and then retreat to the Weizhou border west of Xiangzhou, where the lord is waiting for us, and when you hear the news of our retreat, you will immediately inform Duan Xiushi and Feng Changqing, and withdraw to the Weizhou border with them."

Dai Wang and Tian Zhen gasped at the same time, this kind of action is equivalent to selling their teammates.

Yan Xiaosi glanced at the two of them and said, "Anyway, this is the lord's plan, if there is anything wrong, you will ask the lord when the time comes." ”

"I don't have any objections," Tian Zhen smacked his lips and said, "Feng Changqing is still very concerned about the situation, I'm afraid that there will be something wrong with him at that time." ”

"There is nothing we can do about this kind of thing, the lord means that if this happens, we can only forcibly divide it."

Yan Xiaosi nodded heavily, and said with a firm gaze: "The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, I will choose the most appropriate time, and I also hope that you will act." ”

……

The siege battle under Xiangzhou City included countless dirty thoughts and intrigues. Yu Chaoen regarded the Hexi Army as his own one-third of an acre, and regarded this army with the strongest combat and comprehensive strength as the Chinese army and sat in the back. The comprehensive strength of the Shuofang army ranks second, Guo Ziyi's command ability is also very high, Yu Chaoen was afraid that he would accidentally break through the city, so he ordered him to lead the Shuofang army to dig a ditch to divert the water of the Anyang River to pour into Yecheng, and let Li Guangbi's Hedong army assist in the attack, but let the rest of the Jiedu envoys each besiege one door.

This obviously selfish siege distribution method actually provoked all the jiedu envoys flawlessly, and none of them did not have grievances, and the five-jiedu envoys who besieged the city knew that Yu Chaoen was temporarily immobile according to the Hexi army, and he was reluctant to even throw cannonballs on the city, wasn't he just waiting for them to pick up ready-made after the defeat of the rebels? Who is willing to work hard to attack the city, and the daily challenges have become perfunctory errands.

Feng Changqing and Duan Xiushi were responsible for attacking the north gate and the west gate, and the two of them knew the dirtiness in the army, and even the generals under their command were deeply wary of the rest of the friendly army.

Li Guangbi and Guo Ziyi were also dissatisfied with Yu Chaoen, but in order to take care of the overall situation, the two could only obey Yu Chaoen's orders, which made the eunuch Yu Chaoen more and more proud.

When An Shouzhong was struggling to defend the city, he hurriedly sent his general Xue Song to ask for help from Shi Siming, who was far away in Fanyang, hoping that he could bring troops to help.

As early as when An Qingxu killed his father An Lushan and retreated to Yecheng, Shi Siming, according to the soldier Fan Yang, knew that An Qingxu could not succeed, or perhaps he suffered defeat at the hands of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi twice, and later had some quarrels with An Qingxu that made him decide to surrender to the imperial court. Wu Chengen, the general of Hedong, also strongly persuaded him to surrender, and finally Shi Siming handed in the surrender letter, leading the sixteen counties under his command to return to the Tang Dynasty, and Li Heng named him the king of Guiyi County, and concurrently led the Hebei Jiedu envoy.

Li Heng believed that Shi Siming's surrender was only a stopgap measure, and he would definitely rebel. He then sent Wu Chengen to try to assassinate him, but after the matter was revealed, Wu Chengen was killed with a stick. After the recovery of Luoyang, the eastern capital, Cui Qi and others were in charge of liquidation, and took the surrendered officials Da Xixun and Chen Xilie to Chang'an to be executed. Shi Siming told the generals: "Chen Xilie and others are all important ministers of the imperial court, the emperor abandoned them, and fled to Shuzhong for refuge by himself, if they are recovered today, they are still not exempt from death, not to mention those of us who have followed An Lushan to rebel!" ”

Six months after he occupied Hebei and surrendered, he once again raised the banner of rebellion. He has this capital, An Lushan in the two years of going south, a large number of Chang'an Luoyang's property through the canal to Fanyang, and Luoyang's Hanjiacang almost emptied, in Youzhou and other places to build granaries and hoard nearly three million stone grain and grass, these things are now in his hands, even if the emperor has confidence.

At the moment when Shi Siming raised troops to rebel, it was when the Ninth Route Army of the imperial court besieged Yecheng, An Qingxu sent people to ask for help, and did not hesitate to give away the throne, it seems that he has really reached the brink of destruction. Shi Siming knew the truth of the cold lips and teeth, and he sent someone to reply to An Qingxu and asked him to guard, saying that he would definitely come to the rescue. He personally led 60,000 or 70,000 troops south to Luozhou, and after capturing Weizhou occupied by Cui Guangyuan, he stopped, sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and took a wait-and-see attitude.

In the later stage of the Battle of Yecheng, Shi Siming realized that the veterans of the Tang army were tired, so he sent a small group of cavalry to attack the Tang army's grain road, and ordered them to wear Tang army's clothes to rob each other of grain and grass, which gradually widened the rift between the Tang army's various sections.

Li Guangbi suggested to Yu Chaoen that Yecheng had reached the edge of the city's breaking, and the city had reached the point where the belt and grass roots could not be eaten and cannibalism was eaten, and now the only big trouble was Shi Siming, who was occupying Weizhou, and now he could send the two armies of Hedong and Shuofang to Weizhou to intercept Shi Siming, so that he would not dare to save him.

But Yu Chaoen did not know what to think and rejected Li Guangbi's proposal, and the Tang army had been besieging the city for three or four months, and its morale was exhausted.

The node of history has reached the most critical time, if the Anshi Rebellion is a watershed in Chinese history, then the Battle of Xiangzhou is the watershed of the Anshi Rebellion, if the Tang army is defeated in this battle, the military strength accumulated by the Tang Dynasty will be completely lost, and even in the next five or six years, it will not be able to pose a threat to the Youyan army, and the Tang court has no choice but to accept the existence of the Youyan Domain, and the tumor of the Hebei Domain will become the main contradiction in the middle and late Tang Dynasty to lose the Tang Dynasty's national strength, and eventually continue to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

This battle was also a watershed for Li Siye, and if he could use his prediction of the outcome of the battle to inflict heavy losses on both sides in the Battle of Xiangzhou, he would be invincible in the future war.

In this year, the emperor changed the name of the era, from Zhide to Qianyuan, which seems to be a few months later than in history.

Li Siye thought that the right time had come, and on the same day, on the grounds of his birthday, he invited Cui Yuan, who stayed in the eastern capital, and Yin Suzhen, Henan, to the temporary mansion to drink and eat hot pot, and invited kabuko to perform dances in the courtyard. The three of them drank until the evening, Li Siye was very drunk, and was helped into the inner courtyard by his wife to rest, and the two guests were also drunk, and they each fell in love with two maiko, so they got into the car and went home to make life with their arms around their shoulders.

Li Siye, who was lying on the couch, suddenly opened his eyes and sat up, and asked Cao Anding, who had turned back, "Did you send the guests away?" ”

"Sent back."

"Let's go, let's go to the backyard."

Kubani led 2,000 guards in the backyard and ready to go, Cao Anding and the secretary Cen Shen followed behind him, and his wife and two children also stood in the courtyard.

He said to Kubani: "Tonight you lead two thousand men to escort your wife to Huazhou, and I will pick out two hundred horsemen to go to Xiangzhou. ”

Li Siye beckoned to Li Xu, who was standing beside his mother, and said, "Li Xu, you go with Grandpa." ”

Twelve Niang stretched out her hand and grabbed her son's sleeve, and said reluctantly: "Do you want him to go into danger with you?" My son is still young, and there are no eyes on the battlefield, how can you take care of it. “

"That's why I took him there, and only then did I see the true face of the world, the source of the killing, the truth of violence, deceit, intrigues, things that can never be learned from books."

He instructed his subordinates, "Go and lead a horse for Saburo." ”

No matter how difficult it was for Twelve Niang to leave, Li Siye still hardened his heart to take Li Xu and went to the official road from the north gate of Luoyang City, and Twelve Niang and her daughter Li Chongle went out of the West Gate under the escort of the guards and headed west to Huazhou.

Li Siye took his son, and the twelve horses around him rode north to Huaizhou, at this time, the sun was like blood on the horizon, the white bones on both sides of the dirt road, and the jackals and wild dogs barked in the wilderness. He pointed to this apocalyptic scene and said to his son: "This is a rookie and rookie pecking each other. The Tang army is full of contradictions, the monarchs and ministers are suspicious, the rebels are greedy for money, and the father and son kill each other, and our two masters have a lot to do. ”

"A boy is born in this troubled world, when he has the ambition to clean up the rivers and mountains and swallow the seas, imagine that these 80 million people are the target of your rescue."