In February of the second year of Zhide (757 A.D.), Tang Suzong Li Heng moved the temporary court to Fengxiang, officially launching the imperial counterattack to regain Chang'an. In the middle of the night on February 11, Guo Ziyi led his troops to the city of Hedong. At this time, Cui Qianyou, general of the Yan army, was stationed in the city.He never dreamed that Tang Jun would touch his nose so quickly.What he didn't expect was that Guo Ziyi had already found an internal response in Hedong City. The Tang army should be named Han Min, who was then the Hedong Sihu of the Yan Dynasty.As soon as he saw the Tang army soldiers arriving, he immediately led the crowd to kill a thousand Yan troops guarding the city gate, and opened the city gate to welcome the Tang army.Cui Qianyou suddenly woke up from his dream, and had no time to organize defenses, so he had to flee through the north gate.Later, Cui Qianyou fled into the Yan army camp stationed in the north of the city, and immediately organized troops to launch a counterattack against the Tang army.Guo Ziyi led his troops to fight, defeated the Yan army, beheaded 4,000 people, and captured 5,000 people.Seeing that the general situation was over, Cui Qianyou had to flee to Anyi (now northeast of Yuncheng City, Shanxi) with his remnant soldiers.

There was no garrison in Anyi. When the local people saw that the Yan army had fled here, they opened the city gates to accept them. Just when Cui Qianyou rejoiced that his life should not be lost, the city gate was suddenly closed, and the Yan army was cut into two sections. All the Yan troops who had entered the city gate were beaten to death by the people. Cui Qianyou walked behind the team and had not yet entered the city, so he escaped by luck.He fled desperately with the remaining hundreds of remnants, and finally crossed the Yellow River from Baijingling (southwest of today's Yuncheng City) and fled back to Luoyang in one breath.

Ten days after Suzong arrived in Fengxiang, troops from Longyou, Hexi, Anxi, and Western Regions also arrived.At the same time, JAC's money, food and supplies also arrived one after another.Chang'an Shimin heard that Suzong was stationed in Fengxiang, and they came to join him in an endless stream. For a time, Suzong's court was excited. Taking advantage of the situation, Li Mi reiterated to Suzong the strategy he had proposed before, demanding that heavy troops be gathered to attack Fan Yang, the old nest of the Yan army. However, Li Mi's proposal was rejected by Suzong.

Suzong said: "Nowadays there are many armies from all walks of life, and money, food and supplies are available. We should take advantage of the high morale to conquer the two capitals. How can we travel thousands of miles to fetch Fanyang? Isn't that a long way around?" Li Bi was taken aback.He clearly remembered that when Emperor Suzong heard about this strategy last winter, he repeatedly praised it, why did he backtrack now? Li Mi insisted: "With the current military strength, there is no problem in overcoming the two capitals. But if we do this, the rebel forces will sooner or later become stronger, and we will be in trouble again. In short, this is not a strategy for long-term stability."

Suzong glanced at him lightly: "Why do you say that?" Li Mi said: "Our army is now mainly relying on the soldiers of the Northwest Frontier Fortress and Zhuhu. They are naturally resistant to cold and heat. If they attack the rebels when their morale is high, they can certainly defeat them. However, it is almost late spring now. After Beijing, the weather has turned hot, and the Northwest soldiers in our army must have difficulty adapting to it. At that time, it may be difficult to retain their hearts. After the rebels fled back to Fanyang, they will definitely fight hard. When our Northwest Army withdraws from the Central Plains, they will surely Come back, so this war will never end. I believe that we should put our troops into the cold land of Yanzhao, sweep up the rebel lairs, and make them have no way to retreat, so as to eradicate the disaster from the root. "

Suzong closed his eyes and remained silent.After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes and said, "I am eager to welcome the Supreme Emperor back, so I cannot follow your strategy." Hearing this, Li Mi could only sigh in his heart. It was a far-sighted sigh, but also a historic one. Not long after, although the two capitals were successfully recovered, the Tang army failed to recover the towns in Hebei during the reign of Emperor Suzong. Breaking away from the central government, almost becoming a foreign country... All of these, traced back to the source, all started with the first rebellion and long-term separatism in the towns of Hebei, and it was also related to Suzong Li Heng's refusal to adopt Li Mi's strategy.

Even though Li Mizhi's strategy is wise and far-sighted, no one can change the emperor's decision. A few days later, Emperor Suzong ordered Wang Sili to lead his troops to Wugong (now west of Wugong County, Shaanxi), Guo Yingyi, an envoy of soldiers and horses, to station in the eastern suburb of Wugong, and Wang Rare, an envoy of Baishui Army, to station in the western suburbs, ready to attack Chang'an at any time. On February 19, Yan general An Shouzhong who was stationed in Chang'an took the initiative to attack.Guo Yingyi took the lead in fighting, but was shot through the cheek by an arrow in the fierce battle, and was defeated and fled.Seeing Guo Yingyi's defeat, Wang Rare didn't dare to send troops to rescue him, so he immediately led his troops to flee westward.Wang Sili saw that both the left and right wings were leaving, so he had no choice but to retreat to Fufeng.An Shouzhong took advantage of the victory and marched westward, and his troops went straight to Taihe Pass (now north of Qishan County, Shaanxi).This place is only fifty miles away from Fengxiang.When Suzong's court heard the news, it was greatly shocked and declared martial law in the whole city immediately.

Just when the Tang army in Guanzhong lost the first battle and Suzong's court was in panic, a good news spread from Taiyuan to Fengxiang, which immediately made Suzong Li Heng feel great relief. Ever since the leveling of Hebei, Shi Siming's eyes have been fixed on Taiyuan. There are three reasons why he focused on Taiyuan: First, the guard here is Li Guangbi, the natural enemy that Shi Siming fears and hates the most, so he always wants to eliminate Li Guangbi; If you can take Taiyuan in one fell swoop, you will be able to drive straight into Shuofang and Helong, echoing the Guandong Yan army, and forming a north-south attack on Suzong's court; finally, and most importantly, Shi Siming received information that Li Guangbi's elite soldiers were staying in the Shuofang, the number of soldiers he brought to Taiyuan was less than 10,000, and most of them were regiments and volunteers. They were simply a mob.

How could Shi Siming miss such a god-given opportunity? In the first month of the second year of Zhide, Shi Siming sent troops from Boling, Cai Xide sent troops from Taihang, Gao Xiuyan sent troops from Datong, and Niu Tingjie sent troops from Fanyang. A total of 100,000 troops rushed towards Taiyuan with a thunderous force. When the battle report came, the generals in Taiyuan turned pale with fright, and proposed to raise the height and thickness of the city wall in order to resist Shi Siming's 100,000 troops.But Li Guangbi waved his hand and said, "The circumference of Taiyuan City is about forty miles, and the rebels will arrive in a blink of an eye. Not only is it too late for us to build the wall now, but we will exhaust ourselves to death before we have fought the enemy."

Afterwards, Li Guangbi led his troops and people to dig deep trenches around the city wall, and at the same time ordered people to make hundreds of thousands of earth bricks.No one knows what these adobe bricks are for. It wasn't until the Yan army began to besiege on all sides and the city walls collapsed repeatedly that people discovered the magical effect of these earth bricks-every time the Yan army broke through, Li Guangbi ordered people to use earth bricks to block the gap, making the Yan army helpless. In order to intensify the siege, Shi Siming sent 3,000 people back to Hebei to carry the siege equipment.When this transport team arrived at Guangyang (now Pingding County, Shanxi) with its equipment, Li Guangbi, who is like a god of soldiers, had already set up an ambush here.As a result, the three thousand Yan army was completely wiped out, and all the siege equipment was also burned.

Shi Siming's 100,000 troops surrounded Taiyuan day and night and fought for more than a month, but Taiyuan City remained motionless. This was far beyond Shi Siming's expectations. According to the information obtained before the war, the Taiyuan defenders were not only few in number, but also had little combat effectiveness. Shi Siming thought that he would be able to take Taiyuan in a single battle, but he did not expect that after more than 40 days, he could not get it down. Later, Shi Siming personally selected a group of elites, formed a ranger, and told them: "Our army mainly attacks the north gate, you go to the south gate; if you attack the east gate, you go to the west gate. Once you find a weak link, immediately Attack me in." However, Shi Siming's wishful thinking soon came to nothing.Because Li Guangbi's military order is extremely strict, no matter whether there is an enemy attacking or not, and no matter whether it is day or night, the nerves of every soldier defending the city are tense. Shi Siming's rangers had no chance to take advantage of them. Shi Siming had no choice but to continue the strong attack while sending people to the city every day to yell and scold, trying to anger Li Guangbi and force him to leave the city for a decisive battle.However, what made Shi Siming very puzzled was that not only did the soldiers he sent to fight the war of words fail to lure Li Guangbi out, but they all disappeared inexplicably—no one alive, no dead body! Shi Siming, full of confusion, went to the front line to check in person, and saw that the soldiers who were cursing the war were still yelling with their necks up, but they sank in the blink of an eye, and the whole person fell into the soil. Shi Siming suddenly realized. It turned out that Li Guangbi was playing tunnel warfare with Lao Tzu! Yes, Li Guangbi is fighting tunnels. As early as when the Yan army had just besieged the city, Li Guangbi offered a huge reward in the army to those with special skills. As long as he had a skill and was helpful for defending the city, Li Guangbi immediately reused it.Three men later volunteered, saying they would dig tunnels.As if he had found a treasure, Li Guangbi immediately ordered them to dig, and dug from the inside of the city to the outside of the city wall.Whenever Yan soldiers came to shout and curse, the Tang soldiers hiding in the tunnel suddenly lifted the cover and dragged the enemy soldiers into the tunnel. Come one, grab one; come two, grab a pair!Let Yan Jun be frightened and unable to guard against it. Later, when the soldiers of the Yan army attacked the city, they didn't dare to look up, but stared at their feet, for fear that they would become "earth grandsons" again if they didn't pay attention.As more and more tunnels were dug, none of Yan Jun's ladders could touch the city wall, because as soon as they approached, the ground collapsed immediately, and all the people on the ladders were buried alive in an instant. In addition to authenticity, Li Guangbi also had people make large-scale trebuchets, and each boulder thrown could kill twenty or thirty people, which made the Yan army suffer a lot. In the end, Shi Siming had no choice but to order the army to retreat until they were out of the range of the trebuchet before they dared to set up camp. Although the Yan army slowed down the siege and retreated a certain distance, they still surrounded Taiyuan and surrounded Taiyuan airtightly. Obviously, they wanted to trap the Tang army until the day when the food and grass ran out. To Shi Siming's surprise, within a few days, Li Guangbi could no longer hold on, and sent people out of the city to ask for surrender, and agreed on a date to leave the city and disarm. When the appointed day came, the Tang army opened the gates of the city, lined up to enter the Yan army camp, and surrendered obediently.The soldiers of the Yan army came to watch happily.Just as they were watching intently, there was a loud noise in the middle of the camp, and a large area of ​​land collapsed, and more than a thousand officers and soldiers of the Yan Army were buried alive on the spot. Shi Siming was dumbfounded. It turned out that Li Guangbi had already dug a tunnel under his camp. In an instant, the Yan army's camp was in chaos. Li Guangbi took advantage of the momentum to attack, beheaded and captured more than 10,000 Yan troops. Shi Siming never thought that Li Guangbi would take the initiative to attack by feigning surrender. His mood at this time is exactly the same as when he fought and failed repeatedly in Hebei. In other words, there is only one thought in his mind now - since Shengming, He Shengbi? It was An Qingxu's edict that saved Shi Siming from the bone-piercing shame and indignation. At the beginning of February of this year, the edict of the new emperor An Qingxu of the Yan Dynasty arrived in Taiyuan, ordering Shi Siming to lead his troops back to Fanyang, leaving Cai Xide and others to continue to besiege Taiyuan. It wasn't until this moment that Shi Siming knew that An Lushan was dead. As a good friend who played with An Lushan since he was a child, the death of Fatty An certainly made Shi Siming feel a little sad; Something was about to move. To put it bluntly, that is ambition - the ambition to plot the world and rank in the ninth five! In Shi Siming's eyes, that cowardly and incompetent An Qingxu is not worthy of being the emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty at all! Not long after Shi Siming returned to Fanyang, in order to win over his father's most powerful old ministry, An Qingxu hastily issued an edict to appoint him as Fanyang's Jiedu Envoy and named him King of Chuanchuan. However, Shi Siming did not buy An Qingxu's account. Because, he is now Fan Yang's master, even without An Qingxu's letter of appointment, he is a well-deserved master!Moreover, he holds the most elite iron cavalry of the Yan army in his hand, so why should he obey An Qingxu's orders?What's more, since An Lushan raised troops, all the wealth looted from Chang'an and Luoyang capitals have been transported back to Fan Yang. At this moment, Shi Siming seems to be sitting on a golden mountain, as if he has become the richest warlord in the world. Why can't he despise What about An Qingxu? "Siming has a strong army, takes advantage of rich resources, and benefits from arrogance and arrogance. He does not need Qingxu's order; Qingxu cannot be controlled." (Volume 219) The death of An Lushan undoubtedly planted a fatal hidden danger for the newly established Yan Dynasty.Even though An Qingxu succeeded to the throne by virtue of the rule of "father dies, son succeeds", it does not mean that he can have the power to command all officials.In other words, it is impossible for a regime established purely on scheming and violence to complete the change of power relying on the patriarchal system of "father dies and sons succeed".The final way to determine the ownership of their power can only be scheming and violence. In this sense, Shi Siming was destined to be the emperor of the Yan Dynasty. An Qingxu's defeat was only a matter of time. After Shi Siming withdrew Fan Yang, Cai Xide and others who stayed in Taiyuan were no longer Li Guangbi's opponents.In late February of this year, Yan's army lost all spirit and wavered because of their long-term attack on Taiyuan.Li Guangbi saw the right time and personally led the death squad out of the city to attack, smashing the Yan army, "decapitating more than 70,000 ranks", and achieved an unprecedented victory. Obviously, Li Guangbi's good news of "decapitating more than 70,000 people" is mixed with a lot of water.But it is undeniable that when this good news was sent to Fengxiang, it acted as a booster.Because, on the eve of Suzong's decision to counterattack Chang'an on a large scale, and when the Tang army lost in the first battle, there is nothing more exciting and morale-inspiring than this good news. As long as the exciting goal can be achieved, it doesn't matter if the good news is mixed with water? Even if Li Guangbi didn't get involved, Suzong Li Heng would.