Chapter 39 In the fourth quarter, the snowy night breaks Caizhou

Winter in Huaibei comes earlier, and it is already very cold in mid-October.Over the past few days, the sky has been covered with dense clouds. On the early morning of October 15, the new wind rose suddenly, and then heavy snow fell from the ground.Li Yan walked out of the camp gate and took a look, thinking that the time had come to surprise Caizhou.He immediately ordered Li You to lead the commando with 3,000 people as the vanguard, he himself led 3,000 people as the central army, and his general Li Jincheng led 3,000 people as the rear guard, starting from Wenchengzha.The generals did not know where to march.Li Yan only said: "The troops are marching east." The snow kept falling.At dusk, Li Yan's troops marched to Zhangchai Village, 70 miles away from Caizhou City, wiped out all the enemy troops guarding here and the soldiers guarding the beacon tower, and occupied the village.Li Yan ordered the soldiers to rest for a while, eat some dry food, and check the saddles and bridles of the horses. He left 500 men to guard Zhangchai Village, and the army continued to march eastward through the snow.The generals became more and more worried, and asked Li Yan where he was marching.Only then did Li Yan tell them: "Go to Caizhou to arrest Wu Yuanji." The generals were surprised when they heard this, but they dared not disagree, so they had to obey the order and lead the team forward.

The wind is blowing harder and harder, the snow is getting bigger and bigger, and the weather is getting colder and colder.The fierce north wind rolled the snow and rushed towards the soldiers. Their faces and hands were already numb, as if their bones were frozen through.The flag is cracked.The horses were too cold to neigh, so they could only walk forward with difficulty on the thick snow.At first, the team was still struggling to march, but some old and weak soldiers were frozen to death.Later, many young and strong soldiers were also froze to death, and even many horses froze to death.Due to the severe wind, snow and cold, the unfamiliar roads, and the march at night, the soldiers thought that they would surely die, but no one dared to disobey Li Yan's military orders.People were worried: "Anyway, I'm going to risk my life tonight, so what are you afraid of!" In this way, their bodies became stronger and they were able to persist in marching.In this way, after an extremely arduous march, the officers and soldiers finally arrived outside Caizhou City before dawn.Near Caizhou City, there was a pond where geese and ducks were raised. Li Yan ordered the soldiers to beat the geese and ducks until they croaked to confuse the voices of the people and horses.

It has been more than 30 years since the Wu family and his sons separated Huaixi, and the Tang Dynasty officials and troops have not been to the city of Caizhou for more than 30 years. No one thought that the officers and soldiers would dare to attack Caizhou on a snowy night.Therefore, Li Yan's army came to the city of Caizhou without being noticed by the enemy.The vanguard general Li You led a small number of soldiers to dig and climb the city, and killed all the defenders who were sleeping soundly, leaving only those who were on the watch, and told him to do the watch as usual; Caizhou City.Wu Yuanji was still sleeping in bed at this time.Someone reported to him, "The officers and soldiers have arrived!" Wu Yuanji laughed and said, "The prisoners must be stealing things. We must kill them all after dawn." After a while, someone reported to Wu Yuanji again: "The city has fallen! "Wu Yuanji said: "This must be the disciple of Huiqu asking me for cold clothes!" Later, when he heard the officers and soldiers conveying orders, he hurriedly got up, led his followers, and climbed up the inner city wall to resist.Li Yan ordered the troops to surround the inner city.Caizhou people have been plundered and oppressed by Wu's father and son for a long time. They hate Wu Yuanji very much.The gate was burned down, and the officers and soldiers poured in.Wu Yuanji was desperate, so he had to ask for punishment in the city.Li Jincheng took him down with a ladder.This is October 17th.The next day, while Li Yan escorted Wu Yuanji to the capital Chang'an in a prison cart, he sent someone to report the news of the successful recovery of Caizhou to Prime Minister Pei Du.

Wu Yuanji's general Dong Zhongzhi also led more than 10,000 elite troops to guard Huiqu.In order to win the return of this part of the Huaixi army, Li Yan personally visited Dong Chongzhi's home in Caizhou City, comforted Dong Chongzhi's family members, and asked Dong Chongzhi's son to take a letter to persuade his father to submit to the court.Dong Zhongzhi read Li Yan's letter to him, and he came to surrender to Li Yan alone.The defenders of Shenzhou and Guangzhou, which were originally under Wu Yuanji's control, also surrendered without a fight when they heard that Caizhou had been breached and Wu Yuanji had been captured.Huaixi was pacified, and the battle of Huaixi ended in victory.In November, Tang Xianzong ordered Wu Yuanji to be killed under the Duliu tree in Chang'an.

Li Yan welcomed Pei Du into Caizhou, and led his troops back to Wenchengzha.The generals asked him for advice: "When you lost the battle at Langshan, you were not worried at all, but happy; you won the battle at Wufang, but you didn't take advantage of the victory to take this place; The lone army went deep into the enemy's lair without flinching; finally conquered Caizhou in one fell swoop and won victory, what is the reason for this?" Li Yan explained: "We deliberately lost at Langshan, so that the enemy would despise us and take no precautions against us. If we take Wufang, the enemy there will flee back to Caizhou and hold on together; if we keep Wufang, it will be used to disperse the enemy's forces, which will help us attack Caizhou. The wind and snow, the weather is cloudy, and the enemy If you can't see the beacon fire of the alarm, you can't know that our army will attack suddenly. The lone army goes deep, everyone understands that the situation is critical, and everyone will fight desperately, so they are sure to win the war."

Li Yan's analysis is very reasonable, he can paralyze the enemy and take advantage of the time.But there is another very important point that he didn't mention, that is, from the beginning to the end, Li Yan successfully implemented the policy of preferential treatment of captives and reuse of surrendered generals, so that he was able to divide and disintegrate the enemy, strengthen his own strength, and finally won the first battle. After Huaixi was pacified, many feudal towns saw that the Tang court had the determination and strength to fight against the rebellion, so they had to restrain themselves and express their obedience to the court.Therefore, in the following period of time, the political situation of the Tang Dynasty improved, and a relatively centralized and unified situation emerged, which was beneficial to the people and social production.