In the autumn of the eighth year of Yuan Shuo, Guo Ziyi finally reluctantly agreed to let them leave Xiangyang City under the advice of many generals under his command. He handed over the responsibility of defending the city to the general Zhang Xun, and looked back at these sallow and thin soldiers at the head of the city, and couldn't help but sigh and cry.

Zhang Xun suggested that he take away Guo Jiajun's 3,000 children, but Guo Ziyi wanted the eldest grandson Quanxu to lead more than 2,000 people to stay, and the two argued, and their voices became more and more hoarse.

"Now that the situation is in crisis, the soldiers are thin and weak, I will leave you some more people, and Xiangyang City may be able to hold on for a few more days."

Zhang Xun smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Can you deceive yourself, or can you deceive me, there is no food in the city, the soldiers are hungry, no matter how many people are left, they will die without a place to bury, let alone prolong the time that the city will hold on." Ling Gong took some more people away, and they could also escape. There were enough people left in the city to defend the walls, and the pressure of food shortage could be relieved. ”

His words were just a relief to his heart, and a few hundred stones of grain would be like a drop of dew to a dry field for 10,000 people, and it would have no effect. The remaining grain and grass was used to fill the stomachs of the soldiers on the road when the enemy was attacking the city.

Guo Ziyi also proposed to take some people away, but the plan was to break through at night, Zhang Xun was worried that the team he was carrying was too large to escape, so he only allowed him to take 2,000 people, so the two had a disagreement.

Zhang Xun knelt on one knee on the ground, crossed his hands in front of his chest and said calmly: "It is already a great merit for Ling Gong to take a small number of people out of the city, and taking more people away will only make it impossible for everyone to get out." ”

Only a few generals knew about Guo Ziyi's plan to leave, and they asked the soldiers to go door to door to find the people, lying to them that they were going to organize stretcher teams, men and women, young and old. The choice between life and death took place without their knowledge.

Late the next night, the Tang army organized a force of 5,000 men to break out, and in order to avoid attracting the attention of the enemy, everyone extinguished their torches and wrapped rags around the hooves of the emaciated horses. Skinny men, frail old men with wooden canes in their hands, and the ladies lulled their children to sleep, wrapped in swaddling clothes and hunched over barely keeping up with the procession.

In order to besiege Xiangyang City, the Yongjun built company camps on all sides of the city, even the passage between the two camps, dug trenches and arranged horses to resist. However, due to the limited terrain, only the Han River and the Yan Mountain, which are connected to the moat in the south of the city, are not connected to Yingpun. Because there are two bridges on the river, as long as the Yongjun guards these two bridges, no one wants to fly over the river.

Many of Guo's guards were local generals and were very familiar with the terrain outside the city, and their advice to Guo Ziyi was to climb over Yanshan, because it was in the middle of the two camps, and to cross Yanshan instead of crossing the two bridges diagonally opposite, but to go downstream along the riverbank, although the road was farther, but finally it was possible to reach Jiangcheng.

The only difficulty in carrying out this escape plan was not to let the Yong army notice, otherwise the two sides of the Han River would be flat, and if the other side pursued them with iron horses, the five thousand emaciated people and hungry soldiers would be lambs to the slaughter.

In order to prevent the people from being left behind, Guo Ziyi specially ordered someone to prepare a few hemp ropes and let them tie them around his waist. A few generals who were familiar with the terrain in front groped their way to lead the people forward, Guo Ziyi rode on a horse, turned his head from the Yan Mountain and looked at the Xiangyang city in the distance, the city was still brightly lit, but after these few days, this Jianghuai gateway will eventually change hands.

After they climbed down the Yan Mountain, the Han River was like a ribbon glowing with blue light, and the procession slowly traveled downstream along the river beach. The patrol of the Yongjun suddenly passed by, and their bustling footsteps suddenly stopped, and the string of dancing torches marched up the slope a hundred feet away.

The soldiers surrounded the people in the center, their longbows slowly undrawn, and quietly stared upward. Guo Ziyi leaned over the horse's back, wrapped her arms around the horse's face, and didn't even dare to make a sound.

In the crowd, a woman woke up hungry in the middle of the night with her infant child in her arms, and let out a whoast cry, and the woman hurriedly covered the child's mouth, but the beating torches not far away had been alarmed, and ran over to this side and shouted: "There are many people by the river!" ”

Guo Ziyi grabbed the horned bow and put on the arrows, and took the lead in shooting towards the patrol horse, the arrows in everyone's hands were thrown one after another, and it was vaguely seen that a few torches fell to the ground and shook the sparks, and there were people rolling on the slope, flashing with light and dark.

The rest of the patrol hurriedly rode their horses to the camp for their lives, and two of them had already struck the gong, and the crisp sound of bells spread into the distance.

Guo Ziyi immediately ordered: "It's been exposed, then light the torch and leave!" ”

The team became chaotic, the cries of children and the shouts of the soldiers came and went, and the speed of the team's escape seemed slow. The eldest grandson Quanxu suggested to Guo Ziyi: "Women and children, the old and the weak are all burdens, so it is better for the prince to leave them first, and then transfer troops back to search for them after arriving in Jiangcheng first." ”

Guo Ziyi categorically refused: "What nonsense are you talking about, the people are the foundation of the society, how can they be abandoned at will." ”

"Once the Yongjun army leads a large army of soldiers and horses to chase after us, we will have no place to escape."

Guo Ziyi raised his eyes and looked around, looking at a high hill in the distance, which was black and pressed, like a verdant forest. He raised his horsewhip and pointed to the hill and asked, "Who knows what place it is?" ”

A captain stepped forward and said, "Linggong, that's Caojia Mountain, and there are thousands of acres of dense forest on it." ”

"Quick, everyone follow me to the Caojia Mountain forest!"

Guo Ziyi gave an order, and everyone saw the hope of life, the soldiers helped the old and the young, and the men supported the weak lady, and kept running towards Caojia Mountain.

As soon as they entered the forest, Guo Ziyi ordered everyone to extinguish their torches and hide in the bushes or crawl on the grass. Looking down from the top of the hill, the dotted torches had already chased to the river with the sound of horses' hooves, which was so dangerous that they would only need to slow down a little to completely expose their whereabouts.

The general of the Yongjun army led the army to chase along the riverbank for five or six miles, turned his horse's head and asked the patrol soldiers who raised the alarm: "Didn't you say that there is a Tang army here?" Why don't you even have a fart shadow. ”

"How is that possible? Several of our brothers have been lost in their hands. ”

The general rode on his horse and looked around at the surrounding mountains and rivers, and muttered: "If you want to find out these people, you need more people to search this area, and besides, it is difficult to move at night, so let's wait until tomorrow." ”

After the Yongjun pursuers retreated, Guo Ziyi led the people out of the dense forest of Caojia Mountain and headed downstream along the Han River.

Early in the morning, Duan Xiushi, Tian Chengsi, and Li Huaixian came to Li Siye's Chinese army tent and reported to him that a Tang army had fled from Xiangyang City to the lower reaches of the Han River last night.

Li Siye nodded and said with a smile: "Presumably Guo Ziyi gave up his promise to live and die with Xiangyang and led his henchmen to escape from a desperate situation." Then those who really stayed should be Zhang Xun, Nanba, Lei Wanchun and others who were determined to die. ”

Li Huaixian stepped forward and said: "Please give the last general a general to pursue, in case Guo Ziyi escapes to Jiangcheng, with his appeal, he will soon be able to mobilize a large army to rescue Xiangyang, which is by no means as easy to deal with as Xu Shuji and Helan Jinming." ”

"It should be pursued," Li Siye ordered Li Huaixian: "I heard that Li Guozhen, the deputy envoy of Jingmen Joint, was once a subordinate general under Shi Siming with you, and you led 10,000 people south along the post road to Jingmen, if you can persuade you to surrender, it is best to recapture Jingmen, and then send people to intercept Guo Ziyi near Hanshui." ”

Duan Xiushi also stepped forward and said: "Lord, in order to prevent Guo Ziyi from crossing the east bank halfway, the last general is willing to lead 3,000 men and horses to pursue from the east bank, and he must not be allowed to escape." ”

"Okay."

Seeing that the generals looked like they were facing a great enemy, Li Siye said with confidence: "You don't have to worry, there are many factions in the Southern Tang Army, and there are eunuchs like Yu Chaoen to hinder them. If Guo Ziyi wants to regain control of Jianghuai, he must at least obtain the emperor's will. The combat effectiveness of the Southern Army is weak, and Guo Ziyi alone cannot save the turmoil. Xiangyang is already in my pocket, once I take Jiangcheng can take advantage of the situation, then I see what he will do? ”