Whether it is the defense of the Tubo people or the countermeasures against the Hebei rebels, Guo Rong's real consideration is the Anshi Rebellion that destroyed the Tang Dynasty.

Guo Rong, like many ordinary people, thought that the Anshi Rebellion was just a rebellion.

However, from Anxi to the Central Plains, from Qiuci to Chang'an, from Henan to Mobei, and in the hands of countless people, Guo Rong learned more and more about the nature of the Anshi Rebellion and the depth of the damage to the Tang Dynasty.

From the moment he learned that the Hebei rebels might launch a rebellion, Guo Rong has been thinking about a problem, how to avoid the Anshi Rebellion, and completely consume the national strength of the Tang Dynasty, which has survived for decades.

People who are not familiar with the situation of the Tang Dynasty in the last years of Tianbao can easily regard the Anshi Rebellion as a rebellion launched by Hebei rebels such as An Lushan and Shi Siming because of their ambitions.

But, in essence, it's still a Game of Thrones. The reason why Xuanzong, Li Linfu, Yang Guozhong and others indulged An Lushan to expand their strength was not simply stupidity or greed.

During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, in order to deal with the war situation at the border pass, Xuanzong set up ten major festival envoys, the purpose and original intention were good, and they did play a huge role in a certain period of time.

The Fang army of Qishuo went north, swept through the south and north of the desert, and made the Uighurs honestly the number one horse boy of the Tang Dynasty; The Anxi Army and the Beiting Army swept through the Western Regions, allowing the glory of the Tang Dynasty to shine on most of the continents; The Hexi Army, the Longyou Army, and the Jiannan Army besieged Tubo and locked the Tubo people to death on the plateau; The Hedong Army, the Fanyang Army, and the Pyeonglu Army intimidated the Liaodong tribes, deterred Silla, Baekje, and Balhae Kingdoms, and maintained the stability of Liaodong.

Even the Lingnan Army, the weakest of the ten jiedu envoys, swept through Annan, and joined forces with the Jiannan Army to make the once self-righteous and arrogant Nanzhao realize how old he was.

The prosperity of the Kaiyuan Dynasty is also inseparable from the merits made by these ten festivals, but everything has advantages and disadvantages, and the biggest hidden danger of Datang has also been buried at this time.

In the course of continuous foreign conquests, the border army continued to increase and its strength continued to increase, reaching 490,000 in the first year of Tianbao, accounting for more than 85 percent of the country's total troops.

Among them, An Lushan is also the elite of the Tang Dynasty with up to 150,000 people in the three towns of Fanyang, Pinglu and Hedong.

However, later generations only noticed that An Lushan's soldiers were well fed, but they didn't know that Hebei, led by An Lushan and Shi Siming, was not the most powerful military group at that time.

At the same time when An Lushan concurrently served as the envoy of the three towns, the two towns of Longyou and Hexi, which were located in the northwest of Chang'an, led by the veteran general Ge Shuhan, controlled more than 150,000 soldiers!

Its strength is comparable to that of Hedong, Fanyang, and Pinglu under An Lushan. Although the Tibetan, Uighur, and Liaodong tribes were all barbarians in the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, they were definitely not of an order of magnitude in terms of strength and combat effectiveness.

Although Tubo is not comparable to the entire Tang Dynasty in terms of volume, it can really break hands with the Tang Dynasty on the front.

The alien race on the grassland used to be very wide, but after Taizong, he has become the dogleg of the Tang Dynasty, which can only be said to be threatening, but not fatal.

As for the alien races in Liaodong, after the fall of Goguryeo, it was not even the pain of mustard, and death was a threat such as athlete's foot, baldness, and aphthous sores.

The military groups in the northwest have been at war with Tubo and Fu all the year round, while the armies in Hebei have suppressed the alien races in Liaodong.

What's more, although Anxi and Beiting are relatively opposed, in essence, the Anxi Army and the Beiting Army also belong to the extension and branch of Hexi and Longyou, and they will also be in the same breath at critical moments.

No matter from the perspective of troops, strength, and combat power, the Northwest Military Group composed of Hexi, Longyou, Anxi, and Beiting is the most powerful military group in Datang.

In the northwest and northeast, the two military groups composed of border armies were the Shuofang army, which was strong in strength and good in combat power, and was even more loyal to Li Tang.

The real distribution of forces in the Tang Dynasty at that time was that the military group headed by Ge Shuhan, Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and others in the northwest and the Hebei military group headed by An Lushan and Shi Siming constrained each other, and the Guanzhong-Monan group composed of Shuofang Army and Chang'an Forbidden Army was under the control of the tripartite group, achieving a dynamic balance.

When Li Yu, Fan Xichao, Li Yu and others heard the true situation of the Tang Dynasty before An Lushan's cavalry rebellion, Guo Rong was also stunned for a long time.

Di finally understood the reason for the reaction of Xuanzong, Yang Guozhong, and the princes of Chang'an. Thinking about it, if it weren't for Guo Rong standing in the perspective of future generations, it would be difficult for him to make it possible that An Lushan would take the lead in rebelling.

After all, hard power is put there. An Lushan could not fight the Northwest Fourth Army, which had beaten Tubo and Uighur as grandsons all year round, especially the Anxi Army and the Beiting Army in the westernmost section of the entire Tang Dynasty.

Hearing that An Lushan rebelled, as long as he blocked the passes in various places at the first time, controlled the rebels in Shandong, and quietly waited for the reinforcements from Hexi, Longyou, Anxi, and Beiting to arrive, An Lushan would have only a dead end.

If An Lushan rebels, there will be a chance to take advantage of the sudden idea that before everyone reacts, he will go straight to Luoyang, enter Tongguan, take Chang'an in one go, drive Li Tang's emperor out of Chang'an, and discredit the Li Tang royal family.

It's just that no one expected that after An Lushan raised his troops, without saying a word, with more than 100,000 elites, he really came straight to Luoyang and took Luoyang in one go.

If you hold Tongguan at this time and keep the rebels out of the pass, at the critical moment, Xuanzong personally sent a big rocket to An Lushan.

first beheaded Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing, forced Ge Shuhan to attack, and buried 200,000 elite soldiers and horses, while completely burying the good Tongguan defensive battles.

After breaking the pass, Xuanzong said that he would defend Chang'an with his front foot, and escaped from Chang'an with Yang Yuhuan on his back foot, causing the courtiers of Chang'an to rebel and leave, and almost buried Li Tang's national honor for more than 100 years.

It's just that for the entire Anshi Rebellion, Guo Rong's deepest impression is not these, but the battle of Xiangji Temple, which is known as the pinnacle of cold weapons.

In the battle of Xiangji Temple, the Tang army was dominated by the Anxi Army and the Beiting Army, supplemented by other Tang troops, plus 150,000 elites composed of Uighurs and Dashi mercenaries, and its commander was Guo Ziyi.

On the rebel side, the Hebei rebels consisted mainly of the Hebei rebels' Luoluo River cavalry, the Lan army, and the Jinglu army, plus some Uighur mercenaries, consisting of 110,000 to 120,000 soldiers and horses, and its commander was An Qingxu.

Compared with other wars, this battle has no tricks, sneak attacks or counter-water, it is a dignified frontal battle.

Of course, it can also be done in another way, both sides used their own strategies and arrangements, but the commanders of both sides came to the enemy water to the earth weir, saw the moves, and fought such a wonderful battle in the history of the Chinese war.

First of all, the gap between the two sides is really not big. In terms of troops, the Tang army had a slight advantage, but on the whole it was roughly equal.

In terms of generals, An Qingxu is cowardly and brave, but An Qingxu's two deputies, Li Guiren and An Shouzhong, are both generals of a hundred battles, and they are on par with Guo Ziyi in the command of the battle.

In terms of tactics, the two sides, which are also the main force of the Tang Army, are basically in common. In terms of equipment, there is almost no difference between the equipment of the two armies.

Before the start of the battle, the rebels had already lined up on the north side of the Tang army, the rebel general Li Guiren took the lead in the challenge, the Tang army's front army met and repelled Li Guiren's department, the Tang army won the first battle, and its confidence was greatly boosted, and the soldiers approached the front of the rebel army.

Seeing this, the rebels immediately adjusted their original tactics of focusing on attack and strengthened their defensive measures in front of the battle.

The attack of the Tang army was blocked, the rebels counterattacked with all their might, the Tang army's front was loosened, they panicked, retreated, and the rebels began to follow.

At the critical moment, Li Siye, the general of the Anxi Army, stepped forward, took off his battle robe, showed his chest, held a long knife, stood in front of the formation, and went directly to the front row under the protection of dozens of guards beside him.

Immediately afterwards, it was the highest moment in Li Siye's life, I saw Li Siye holding a Mo knife and a horizontal knife, and the rebels were all shattered.

After Li Siye killed dozens of people in a row, the rebels were shaken and retreated slightly, while Guo Ziyi used the time Li Siye bought to quickly adjust the deployment, so that the Tang army stabilized its position.

Immediately afterwards, according to Guo Ziyi's order, Li Siye immediately reorganized the formation, and the front army led by him each held a long knife, advancing like a wall, and everywhere he went, he was invincible.

Seeing that defeat was imminent, the rebel generals immediately ordered the heavy cavalry of the Luoluo River, which was lurking on the eastern side of the Tang army's camp, to attack the rear of the Tang army.

However, it was discovered by the Tang Army's scouts and immediately reported to Guo Ziyi of the Chinese Army. Subsequently, Guo Ziyi ordered that the then Shuofang's left wing soldiers and horses, Gu Huai'en, led 4,000 Hui cavalry to attack, and the two sides immediately started a bloody battle.

The two sides fought from noon to evening, and the Tang army attacked and defeated the rebels; The rebel reserves were supplemented and repelled by the Tang Army; On the reserves of the Don Army, defeat the rebel reserves; The second echelon of the rebels followed ... And so on, and in the end, it is consumption, who has more people, who has strong endurance.

As a result, this war in Xiangji Temple became a war of attrition, and it was basically exchanged for a one-to-one battle loss ratio.

The fierce battle began at noon and lasted until the end of the unitary hour, and finally the Tang army relied on the numerical superiority to consume the rebels' more than 100,000 troops, and broke An Qingxu led the last more than 1,000 people to flee, only to achieve the final victory in the battle of Xiangji Temple.

However, in less than three hours, the Tang army directly killed more than 60,000 people, filled the ravines, and killed 123 people and captured more than 20,000 prisoners!

It seems that this result can be called a brilliant result, however, if the battle loss ratio of the two sides is almost 1 to 1, I am afraid that no one will be able to laugh.

That is to say, the direct battle deaths on the Tang army side also exceeded 60,000 people, and the total number of battle losses such as the Tang army and the rebels combined, such as battle deaths, serious injuries, and disabilities, was roughly close to 200,000, so that the corpses of the entire Xiangji Temple were all over the field, the white bones were deep, and the roads were red with blood stains everywhere.

To be honest, when listening to Li Yu's lecture on himself, listening to Li Yu's description of the battle and the data reported, Guo Rong was very confused.

Guo Rong is not an ancient, but he has not fought before, and 10% of the battle damage is generally the level borne by ordinary troops.

If it weren't for the line to death, such as the special situation of Xingqing Palace, which is equal to death in battle, and retreating after suffering battle losses of 30%, it can already be called elite.

According to the data given by Li Yu, the rebels were killed sixty percent in battle and eighty percent lost in battle, or because there were no reinforcements.

In other words, the rebels have suffered at least sixty percent of the battle losses and have not collapsed, and in any era, this is an extremely strong army.

And such a strong army is only the losing side, and it is precisely because of their failure that it proves that their opponents are also extremely strong.

The entire 200,000 elites of the Tang Dynasty were consumed outside Chang'an City in the midst of internal friction, and in Guo Rong's view, this was the worst loss of the Tang Dynasty in the entire Anshi Rebellion.

If these 200,000 elites are still there, how can the Anshi Rebellion last for six years? If these 200,000 elites are still there, give the Tubo people ten dares to kill Chang'an?

If these 200,000 elites are still there, how can there be the so-called division of feudal towns and the rebellion of the four kings? However, all this has become a thing of the past, leaving an indelible shadow in Guo Rong's heart.

………………………………………………………………………………………… For Li Yu, Guo Rong has always been full of gratitude, and the reason is very simple.

At the beginning of the Battle of Xingqing Palace, although he won by luck in the end, Guo Rong at that time was essentially just an excellent low-level officer who was good at defensive warfare.

However, Emperor Li Yu chose a teacher for Guo Rong who had a solid foundation, brave combat and brave style, and it was during the months of studying with Li Yu that Guo Rong completed the transformation from a low-level officer to a high-ranking general through these countless combat examples and analysis.

Just like the battle of Xiangji Temple, Li Yu took Guo Rong and the young generals of the Changying Army to the former battlefield more than once.

And it was the memory of the Battle of Xiangji Temple that completely forged Guo Rong's final combat and military style. As the turning point of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, Guo Rong has never forgotten the memory of the Anshi Rebellion.

As the turning point of the Anshi Rebellion, the memory of Xiangji Temple has always haunted Guo Rong's heart. In the case of Tubo's fierce eyesight, overseas wolf ambitions, and internal crisis of Shandong's wealthy families, Guo Rong knew from the beginning that a counterinsurgency that exhausted his potential like the Anshi Rebellion, and a tragic turning point like the Battle of Xiangji Temple was meaningless to Datang.

Just like what he once said to Li Yu, Li Chun and the senior generals of the Changying Army: the defeat battle is meaningless, only a real encirclement battle, a real overwhelming victory, is the real way out for the Tang Dynasty today.

From the beginning, Guo Rong thought so, and Guo Rong has always done this, and now, it is finally the last battle in the Central Plains that Guo Rong expects.

If it were possible, Guo Rong hoped that no one would die in the war under his command. However, in order to create a misjudgment for the rebels that they are exhausted in battle, some sacrifices are inevitable, and only these real elite death-to-death battles can make the other party dare to put all their forces into it at once.

Only in this way, when the rear hand of his own arrangement arrives, the rebel army, which still has an absolute advantage in numbers, can completely collapse under the great psychological contrast.

Guo Rong wanted his Bianzhou to be an overwhelming war of annihilation, not a tragic Xiangji Temple.