Chapter 71 162 Li Guangbi Destroys Shi Siming

After the Tang Dynasty regained the two capitals, An Qingxu fled to Hebei, occupied sixty cities, and continued to resist.Tang Suzong decided to send a large army to suppress An Qingxu.For this march, the Tang army concentrated a total of 600,000 troops led by nine Jiedu envoys.Who will lead the Nine Route Army? In terms of status and prestige, it should be Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi. However, Tang Suzong, who was very suspicious, feared that Guo and Li would have too much power. Yu Chaoen, the eunuch who fought in battle, served as the military commander (the military chief who supervised the generals who went to the expedition), and all the nine Jiedu envoys had to obey his command.

When the Tang army attacked Yecheng, Shi Siming rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and led troops from Fan Yang to rescue An Qingxu.The 600,000 Tang troops were preparing for a decisive battle with the Ban army, but before they could take up their positions, a gust of wind suddenly blew up, filling the air with sand and dust, making the sky dark and dark.The Nine Route Army did not have a unified command, so they all fled like frightened horses. Tang Jun was defeated, and Yu Chaoen put the responsibility for the failure on Guo Ziyi.Tang Suzong listened to Yu Chaoen's words, removed Guo Ziyi's post as Shuofang Jiedu envoy, and let Li Guangbi take over Guo Ziyi's post.

At this time, the rebels broke out again.Shi Siming killed An Qingxu in Yecheng, established himself as Emperor Dayan, rectified his troops, and attacked Luoyang. When Li Guangbi arrived in Luoyang, the officials in Luoyang were a little scared when they heard that Shi Siming's troops were fierce, and some people advocated retreating to Tongguan.Li Guangbi said: "Now that the two sides are evenly matched, we retreat, and the enemy is more rampant. It is better to transfer our army to Heyang (now Meng County, Henan Province), where we can attack when we advance, and defend when we retreat."

Li Guangbi ordered the withdrawal of all officials and common people from Luoyang, and led his troops to Heyang. When Shi Siming entered Luoyang, Luoyang had become an empty city.Shi Siming wanted no people, no food, and was afraid of Li Guangbi's sneak attack, so he had to lead his troops out of the city and build a position in the south of Heyang to confront Li Guangbi's Tang army. Li Guangbi is a battle-tested veteran.He knew that the troops in front of him were not as strong as the rebels, so he had to outsmart them instead of attacking them hard.He heard that Shi Siming brought more than a thousand war horses from Hebei, and put them on the sandbar by the river to bathe and graze every day, so he ordered his subordinates to gather the mares and tie the ponies in the stables until the rebel war horses arrived at the sandbar. , let the mare out to mix with the enemy's war horses.After a while, the mare remembered the pony and ran back screaming, and the enemy's war horses followed to the Tang army's position.

Shi Siming lost thousands of war horses at once, and was so angry that he immediately ordered his subordinates to gather hundreds of warships and attack from the waterway.A fire boat was used to open the way ahead, preparing to burn Tang Jun's pontoon bridge. When Li Guangbi heard the news, he prepared hundreds of thick long bamboo poles, and wrapped the poles with iron armor.When the rebel fireboat approached, hundreds of soldiers stood on the floating bridge and supported the fireboat with bamboo poles.The fire boat couldn't move forward, its masts were cracked by the fire, and it sank all at once.The Tang army fired stone cannons on the pontoon bridge to attack the enemy's warship, beating the enemy soldiers on board until they were bleeding.Some even sank to the bottom of the water with their boats; some struggled to climb ashore and ran away desperately.

Shi Siming sent several generals to mine Heyang several times, but Li Guangbi used tricks to repel them. In the end, Shi Siming became ruthless and concentrated a strong force. He sent the rebel general Zhou Zhi to attack the northern city of Heyang, and led an elite army to attack the southern city. In the morning, Li Guangbi led his generals to the North City to observe the enemy's military situation. They saw a large area of ​​the enemy army approaching the North City in groups.General Tang Jun didn't say anything, but panicked in his heart.Li Guangbi saw everyone's mood, and said calmly: "Don't be afraid, although there are many rebels, but the team is not neat, you can see that they are a little proud. Don't worry, they will be defeated before noon!"

Then, Li Guangbi ordered the soldiers to attack separately.Although the soldiers fought bravely, the enemy retreated for a while, and the follow-up troops came again.The sun has reached the top of the head, and the two sides are still in the game. Li Guangbi called his generals to discuss again, and said: "You observe the enemy's formation, which direction has the strongest combat effectiveness?" The generals replied: "Northwest corner and southeast corner." Li Guangbi nodded, and immediately dispatched 500 cavalry, led by two generals, to attack the northwest and southeast corners separately.

Li Guangbi gathered all the remaining soldiers and solemnly announced the military order, saying: "Soldiers, look at my flag and move: I wave the flag slowly, and you can act independently; if you wave the flag to the ground quickly, it is a signal for a general attack. Soldiers When you see this signal, you must move forward bravely, and you are not allowed to retreat in front of the battle." At this point, he took a short knife and stuck it in his boots, and said, "War is a matter of life and death. I am the minister of the country. Don't die at the hands of the enemy. If you die at the front, I'll kill myself here."

After hearing Li Guangbi's words of encouragement, the soldiers all bravely went to battle.Not long after, the general Hao Tingyu turned around and ran back from the front of the battle. Li Guangbi immediately sent soldiers to meet him with his sword, and wanted to behead Hao Tingyu on the spot. When Hao Tingyu saw that the soldiers who sent the order wanted to kill him, he yelled loudly: "My horse has been hit by an arrow, it's not that I'm retreating." The soldiers who sent the order reported to Li Guangbi, and Li Guangbi immediately ordered Hao Tingyu to put on a horse and go into battle again to command the battle.

Seeing the high morale of the Tang army, Li Guangbi quickly waved the flag to the ground and ordered a general attack. When the soldiers saw the banner at the top of the city, they scrambled to rush into the enemy's line, shouting loudly.The rebel army was attacked fiercely, unable to hold back any longer, retreated one after another, was killed by the Tang army, captured more than a thousand soldiers, and more than a thousand soldiers were squeezed into the water and drowned. Zhou Zhi, the rebel general who attacked the northern city, escaped . Shi Siming is continuing to attack Nancheng.Li Guangbi drove the rebels captured in Beicheng to the riverside. Shi Siming knew that Zhou Zhi's army had collapsed and dared not fight any more, so he quickly ordered to retreat and fled back to Luoyang.

Li Guangbi repelled Shi Siming's attacks consecutively, and the two sides stalemate for nearly two years.Tang Suzong listened to Yu Chaoen's words and ordered Li Guangbi to attack Luoyang. Li Guangbi believed that the enemy's forces were still strong and they should not attack the city easily.Tang Suzong sent eunuchs one after another to force him to attack. Li Guangbi took the risk to attack, but he was defeated. Li Guangbi was also dismissed as the coach. Shi Siming went to a strong opponent and took advantage of the victory to attack Chang'an.Fortunately, at this time, there was a third infighting among the rebels, and Shi Siming was killed by his son Shi Chaoyi. The rebel army was torn apart, and in 763 AD, Shi Chaoyi was defeated and committed suicide. From the rebellion in Anlu Mountain to the failure of Shi Chaoyi.There was a civil war in the Central Plains for eight years, which was called the "Anshi Rebellion" in history.