When Li Longji was not in Chang'an, the crown prince Li Heng was in charge of the country.

Although Li Heng's ability is mediocre, his desire for power is not small, and he very much wants to take advantage of Li Longji's absence in the past few months to make some achievements, especially in terms of money and food supply, that is, he wants to prove his own ability to govern by continuously supplying and transposing money and food to Li Longji's army.

However, the reality is harsh.

After really grasping power, Li Heng discovered how empty the Tang court was at this time.

Under the prosperity of the seemingly blazing fire, Datang's finances have long been stretched beyond their means, not to mention that it is to supply money and food to Li Longji's hundreds of thousands of troops, and even the high-ranking officials and nobles in Chang'an City cannot be paid, and Tianbao's thirteen-year annual salary is still owed.

Therefore, Li Heng summoned a group of prime ministers from the political affairs hall and several new magistrates of the household department to try to find a way to raise money and food in a short period of time.

However, after several months of discussion, no result was discussed.

Li Heng is still too naïve, when a dynasty reaches the middle and late stages, the financial problem is basically an unsolvable problem, and there is basically only one way to solve it - that is, to change the law!

However, even if the law is changed, it will not be effective overnight.

But Li Heng wants to reverse the financial dilemma in a short period of time, how is it possible?

On this day, after discussing with Wei Jiansu and several other prime ministers for a morning and there was no result, Li Heng felt so depressed that he couldn't do it, so he took his relatives and prepared to go to Zhongnan Mountain to hunt and relax.

As a result, as soon as he walked outside the Mingde Gate, the pedestrians in front of him suddenly became commotion.

Li Yu, who was accompanied by Li Heng, stopped a vendor and asked, "What happened?" ”

"A lot of Tibetan troops!" The merchant said in a panic, "The Tubo army has been killed outside Chang'an City."

"What? The Tibetan Army? Li Heng was taken aback, this was really a leak in the house and rained overnight.

An Lushan's rebellion has not been quelled, has Tubo also rebelled? And the Tubo army that launched the rebels also killed Chang'an, how is this good?

Li Yu reminded: "Grandpa, you have to close the city gate quickly!" ”

Other relatives also chimed in: "Prince, close the city gate quickly, and don't let the Tubo army enter the city!" ”

Li Heng snorted, and just as he was about to give the order, Lu Tianshi's voice suddenly sounded in the void: "Don't panic, it's not the Tubo army that is coming, but the Shannan army led by Li Siye, the envoy of Shannan Jiedu." ”

"Shannan Army?" Li Heng and a cadre of relatives behind him were suspicious.

"Yes, Li Siye's Shannan Army." Lu Tianshi said, "Come to King Qin to quell the rebellion." ”

When he was in doubt, a fast horse had galloped over, wearing the standard black hammer armor of the Tang Army.

After coming to Li Heng, the rider sang and said: "Oh, under the command of the envoy of the Datang Luo Daoshan Nanjiedu, Duan Xiushi, the town guard of the Pibo Army, visited the prince, and the prince is healthy. ”

"Duan Aiqing is exempt." Li Heng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It's just a false alarm, and it was Li Siye's Shannan Army who came.

Duan Xiushi said again: "Prince, Li Jieshuai heard that the sage personally led a large army out of the pass to meet the rebels, so he did not enter the city to meet the prince, but led the army to support him, and only asked the last general to come to greet the prince on his behalf." ”

"Okay, okay, okay, Li Aiqing thinks of the saint, he is a loyal minister of my Tang Dynasty, and he is very relieved."

After sending Duan Xiushi away, Li Heng crossed his hands and asked, "Dare to ask Lu Tianshi, is my grandfather okay?" ”

"Good, not good." Lu Tianshi's voice came from the air, "It's good, it's because your grandfather is still alive, it's not good, it's because his army of more than 100,000 is over, and there are only a few thousand remnants left." ”

"Huh?" Li Heng, Li Yu and a group of relatives suddenly changed their faces.

Lu Tianshi said again: "That's why Li Siye rushed to Tongguan in a hurry, because he went late, your grandfather may have really let the rebels enter the pass, and your grandfather has really become a prisoner of the rebels." ”

"This ......" Li Heng's expression moved slightly, and he didn't know what he was thinking.

……

At this time, the main force of An Lushan's rebels had already reached Tongguan.

Hearing that Li Longji had been taken to the old city of Tongguan by Ge Shuhan, An Lushan did not hesitate to order a fierce attack on the old city of Tongguan, and he wanted to capture Li Longji alive.

Capturing Li Longji alive can not only greatly satisfy himself personally, but also achieve the ultimate goal of forcing Li Tang to land on him politically, so the rebels launched a decisive attack as soon as they came up.

However, the old city of Tongguan in the Han Dynasty was built on the steep Tongguan Plain, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

After several days of storming, the rebels lost thousands of elite soldiers, but they were never able to break through the old city.

At the same time, An Qingxu, who entered the pass first, sent a flying horse to report, saying that he had encountered hundreds of thousands of Tang Qinwang troops near Huayin, and An Lushan did not dare to spend any more time in the old city of Tongguan, leaving Cui Qianyou to guard Tongguan, and then personally led the main force of the rebel army into the pass, preparing for a decisive battle with Li Siye's Qinwang army.

……

Li Siye's army has entered Huayin.

Li Siye had doubts about whether to engage in a field battle with the rebels.

Li Siye himself can be called the number one fierce general in the Tang Dynasty, but he is quite cautious in his use of troops.

After the An Lushan rebels raised their troops from Fanyang, they were like bamboos all the way, and after arriving in Luoyang, they first defeated Ge Shuqian, and then defeated Li Longji, which shows that the combat effectiveness of the rebels is very strong.

In view of this, Li Siye moved the idea of guarding Huayin.

As long as the Shannan army held Huayin City, the main force of the rebels would not dare to enter the Guanzhong Plain.

And if only a small number of divisions go deep, it will not threaten the safety of Chang'an, so that Chang'an and Huayin will form a horn trend, and the rebels will never dare to drive straight into Huayin unless they break through Huayin first.

Militarily, Li Siye's consideration can be said to be no problem.

But from a political level, Li Siye's idea has a big problem.

Because the time dragged on for too long, it will inevitably lead to serious damage to Datang's human, material and financial resources.

Only by quickly annihilating the main force of the rebels, and then carrying out the agrarian revolution in Guanzhong Province and Dugi Province, until the people of Guanzhong Province and Dugi Province were mobilized, and then marching north to pacify Shi Siming's rebels, and then taking advantage of the situation to carry out large-scale land reform in Hebei Province, Hedong Province, and Henan Province, the general trend would be basically determined.

Those high-ranking families will completely lose the opportunity to counterattack.

All in all, there must be no significant loss of population.

Now that the rebels are busy attacking the city and have not much time to plague the people, they are quickly exterminated.

At that moment, Lu Tianshi directly rejected Li Siye's proposal, saying: "It is indeed safer to defend the city according to the city, but it will be protracted, and it will inevitably lead to a large loss of population in Dugi Province, Henan Province and even Huainan Province, which will lead to serious damage to the national strength of the Tang Dynasty, which is not the result I want, so I must fight with the rebels in Huayin." ”

Lu Tianshi had already made a decision, and Li Siye no longer insisted on it at the moment.

Li Siye immediately ordered the whole army to go out of the city and set up a large camp outside Huayin City.

As a result, the Shannan army had just set up camp, and An Lushan sent people to surrender.

An Lushan attaches great importance to Li Siye, and the envoy sent to surrender is also a heavyweight - Prince An Qingxu!

An Lushan didn't know what he thought, on the one hand, he might want to take the opportunity to show his attention to Li Siye, and on the other hand, he might have the idea of killing people with a knife, and wanted to get rid of An Qingxu by Li Siye's hand.

If he wanted to borrow a knife to kill people, then An Lushan did achieve his intention.

Because after Li Siye saw An Qingxu, he beheaded him directly without saying a word.

Then he sent troops to carry An Qingxu's head with a spear to the front of the two armies.

It is said that after An Lushan saw this scene, he was so angry that he vomited blood on the spot, and then ordered the whole army to attack.

Hundreds of thousands of rebels were also furious because Li Siye killed An Qingxu unruly, so their morale was even stronger.

At the end of June in the 14th year of Tianbao of the Tang Dynasty (755), Li Siye's 200,000 Shannan army and An Lushan's more than 300,000 rebels launched a final decisive battle on the plain east of Huayin City.

This decisive battle will ultimately determine the national fortunes of Datang.

If defeated, Datang's national glory will come to an abrupt end.

If it wins, Datang will continue the glory of the Tang Dynasty.

The two armies were in a circle, and An Lushan took the "imperial chariot" out and once again proposed to meet Li Siye face-to-face.

An Lushan's relationship with Longyouhe Shuo generals such as Ge Shuhan has always been very bad, but his relationship with Anxi generals such as Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing and Li Siye is actually okay.

So An Lushan is still ready to make another effort at the end.

Unexpectedly, this move turned out to be a big mistake.