Chapter 8 Battle of Yecheng

On the first day of the first month of the second year of Qianyuan (759 A.D.), Shi Siming suddenly made an unexpected move. He built an altar in Weizhou to worship the heavens, and established himself as the "Great Sage Yan King". What does Shi Siming mean?Why didn't he become king earlier and later, but why did he become king at this juncture when Tang Jun and An Qingxu were in full swing? In fact, the reason is very simple, because An Qingxu is about to come to an end, and the Yan Dynasty will inevitably fall into a situation without a leader. Shi Siming becoming king at this time is tantamount to announcing to the civil and military officials of the Yan Dynasty that from now on, we will It is the new political authority of the Yan Dynasty, and I am your boss!

To put it bluntly, Shi Siming was laying the groundwork for proclaiming himself emperor. From the moment Shi Siming sent his troops south, Li Guangbi felt a thorn in his back.Afterwards, when Shi Siming arrived in Weizhou, he did not move. It was clear that he was sitting on a mountain and watching the tigers fight, and Li Guangbi was even more on pins and needles.What he was worried about was: if the Tang army could not attack Yecheng for a long time, and Shi Siming took advantage of the exhaustion of Tang army veterans to launch an attack, the consequences would be disastrous. Li Guangbi then suggested to Yu Chaoen that he divide his troops northward to force Shi Siming, even if he couldn't win, a stalemate would be enough to relieve the danger of the Tang army being attacked.

But Yu Chaoen flatly refused. Of course he would refuse.How can a majestic military officer who observes the appearance of the army, announces comfort and disposes of it, let a Jiedu envoy under his command dictate his actions?What's more, in Yu Chaoen's view, the Tang army has hundreds of thousands of people (except for the 200,000 at the beginning, and then a large number of soldiers and horses came one after another), and it is no problem to conquer Yecheng, so there is no need to do so Afraid of Shi Siming.After taking Yecheng, and then concentrating the troops to move northward, Shi Siming will be defeated in one fell swoop!

However, Yu Chaoen is too confident. Yecheng was not as easy to fight as he had imagined. From October of the first year of Qianyuan to February of the following year, hundreds of thousands of troops besieged Yecheng and stormed day and night. It took nearly half a year, but they couldn't take this tiny piece of land. The Tang army was unable to attack for a long time, and finally had to adopt the strategy of water attack. Two dams were built on Zhangshui (flowing through the north of Yecheng), and three trenches were dug, and the raging river water was poured into Yecheng. In an instant, Yecheng "boosted wells and springs" and became a land of water and water.The officers and soldiers of the Yan army built wooden houses on the water.As the siege lasted for a long time, the food gradually ran out, and the people in the city ate rats.Rat meat prices skyrocketed immediately, and a rat sold for 4,000 yuan.In fact, even the rats were eaten up, so people picked the soil from the walls, washed out the wheat husks mixed in when the walls were built, and then scoured the unchewed fibers from the horse manure, and mixed them up to eat.

At the last moment, the officers and soldiers of the Yan army, who were originally alienated from Germany, showed amazing tenacity, which was far beyond Tang Jun's expectations.Of course, there are also many people who want to surrender to the Tang army, but there are floods everywhere in and outside the city, making it impossible for them to leave the city. At the end of February in the second year of Qianyuan, Shi Siming finally made a move. After nearly half a year of watching with cold eyes, Shi Siming has thoroughly figured out the details of Tang Jun.He knew that although the Tang army had a huge force, they had different orders and had no basis for advancing and retreating. They were basically a group of mobs.And the reason for this is that the commander-in-chief is a eunuch-a conceited and stupid military blind.

Thinking that Emperor Li Tang actually handed over so many elite Tang soldiers to an eunuch, Shi Siming couldn't help but want to say "thank you" to Li Heng.If Li Heng hadn't made such a stinky move and put such terrible opponents as Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi under the command of a military blind, how would Shi Siming have a chance to defeat them? For Shi Siming, who was determined to proclaim himself emperor, Li Heng's wrong decision undoubtedly helped him a lot. Shi Siming personally led the army to set off from Weizhou, and ordered the generals to set up camp 50 miles away from Yecheng. Each camp distributed 300 war drums, beating day and night, bluffing.Later, Shi Siming ordered each battalion to select 500 elite cavalrymen to fight guerrillas near the Tang Army camp.If the Tang army is unprepared, they will plunder and harass; as soon as the Tang army is dispatched, they will flee in all directions and return to their camps.If the Tang army is on guard during the day, they will sneak attack at night; if the Tang army is on guard at night, they will sneak attack during the day.In short, these guerrillas strictly implemented Shi Siming's tactical thinking of "the enemy is tired and we are disturbed, and the enemy advances and we retreat", which made the Tang army exhausted and miserable.In those days, a considerable number of officers, soldiers, cattle, horses, or luggage of the Tang army were looted every day. Many soldiers even went out to cut firewood or grass, and they would be silently wiped their necks by the guerrillas of the Yan army.

In addition to harassing Tang Jun day and night, Shi Siming has a more damaging trick. That is robbery. At that time, because the Li and Tang courts were attacking Yecheng almost with all their strength, the number of Tang troops who came to Yecheng to assemble in succession turned out to be as many as 600,000 in the end, so the supply of food and salaries for these 600,000 people became a huge project.From Jiang, Huai (East China) and Bing, Fen (Shanxi) and other places, there will be a large number of convoys and fleets to deliver grain to Yecheng every day.Shi Siming asked his guerrillas to disguise themselves as the Tang army, and intercepted the Tang army's grain transport team everywhere. In the name of slow speed and delay, he hacked and killed all the officers, soldiers and civilian husbands in charge of the escort, and then burned the grain.

Regarding these Yan army guerrillas who came and went without a trace, Tang Jun was very troubled, but he was helpless.Because they were all wearing Tang Jun's uniforms, no one would recognize them even if they swaggered past Tang Jun. After a period of time, the Tang army ran out of food and grass, and the morale of the army was greatly lax. In March of this year, Shi Siming felt that the time was right, so he personally led a large army to the city of Yecheng, posing for a decisive battle with the Tang army. On March 6, Tang Jun and Shi Siming fought a decisive battle outside Yecheng.

All 600,000 cavalry of the Tang army were dispatched to form formations on the north bank of the Anyang River (which flows through the north of Yecheng). Shi Siming led only 50,000 elite cavalry to fight.Tang Jun saw that the Yan army had few soldiers, and thought that it was not Shi Siming's main force, so he suddenly underestimated the enemy. Shi Siming took the lead in attacking, and Tang Jun's Li Guangbi, Wang Sili, Lu Jiong and others led their troops to fight.At first, the two sides were tied, with roughly equal casualties.Soon, Lu Jiong was injured by a stray arrow, and led his troops to retreat hastily.Guo Ziyi's Shuofang army was just behind him, and they were thrown into disarray.

Just then, something unexpected happened.The originally clear sky suddenly became pitch black.Immediately after, there was a strong wind, flying sand and rocks, and the sky was dark in an instant, and it was impossible to distinguish at a distance.Seeing this scene, everyone was terrified, so they turned around and fled at the same time—Tang Jun fled south, Yan Jun fled north, each of them ran like flying, only hated that their parents gave birth to two legs for themselves. Both sides were only concerned with running for their lives, and armor, weapons, and baggage were thrown everywhere.The Yan army was small in scale, so the losses were naturally relatively small; while the Tang army suffered huge losses-"Thousands of war horses, only three thousand remained, and one hundred thousand battles were abandoned." (Volume 221)

Among the nine Jiedu envoys, only Guo Ziyi remained relatively calm.He was worried that after Shi Siming stabilized his position, he would take advantage of the situation and go south to attack Luoyang, so he led his troops to retreat to Heyang (now Mengzhou City, Henan Province) to ensure that Luoyang was safe.Of the other eight Jiedu envoys, only Li Guangbi's and Wang Sili's were in order when they withdrew to their own way, with neither harassment nor deserters.All the remaining soldiers and horses have lost their organizational systems, and their military discipline has completely disappeared.Wherever the deserters passed by, they wantonly robbed the people of money and food, and the local officials dared not stop them at all.The states and counties along the way experienced serious riots for more than ten days, and it was not considered to have subsided until hundreds of thousands of rioters passed by. When the officials and common people in Luoyang heard that the 600,000 officers and soldiers were scattered in an instant, they were so frightened that they lost their souls, so they fled and hid in the nearby mountains.Cui Yuan, who stayed behind in Tokyo, and Yin Suzhen in Henan, and other officials fled further, and fled to Xiangzhou (now Xiangfan City, Hubei Province), Dengzhou (now Dengzhou City, Henan Province) and other places in one breath. The battle of Yecheng against An Qingxu started with a high-profile attitude of victory, but ended sadly with a massacre of 600,000 people. Although Tang Jun was not defeated by Shi Siming, this disastrous defeat undoubtedly contributed to Shi Siming's strong rise objectively. Shi Siming retreated to Shahe (north of today's Shahe City, Hebei Province), and learned that all Tang troops had fled south, so he gathered his troops back to Yecheng and camped in the south of the city.He neither went to the city to meet An Qingxu, nor pursued the Tang army south, but drank and had fun in the camp every day, rewarding the three armies, depending on An Qingxu's reaction. To be precise, Shi Siming wanted to see how An Qingxu would fulfill his promise of "giving way". After the Tang army left, An Qingxu ordered people to collect the 60,000 to 70,000 shi of grain abandoned by the Tang army, and then closed the gate of the city without making a sound, as if he didn't realize Shi Siming's existence at all. An Qingxu's neglect of Shi Siming made most of the civil and military officials in Yecheng quite dissatisfied.Gao Shang, Zhang Tongru and others said to An Qingxu: "The King Shi came from a long way and lifted the siege of Yecheng. The ministers should go out of the city to welcome them, and they should not avoid seeing them." An Qingxu knew that from the moment he begged Shi Siming for help, his fate was already doomed.The key is not the promise to sell the throne.Because promises are always very unreliable things, there are many people in the world who break their promises and go back on their promises, and I, An Qingxu, are not the only ones? The problem is - those who dare to break their promises must have the strength to back them up. To put it bluntly, the reason why An Qingxu had a power crisis was that his strength was far behind Shi Siming.Without strength to rely on, no matter whether you have made a promise to sell the throne or not, the result will be the same.Today, the reason why Gao Shang, Zhang Tongru and others speak up for Shi Siming is not because they are usually noble people and think that since they have made promises, they cannot break their promises, but because they have seen Shi Siming's strength, so they wholeheartedly want to change their families and join Ming Dynasty. Lord. In fact, An Qingxu knew better than anyone else that asking Shi Siming to rescue him was purely a trick to lure tigers and drive wolves away, but what could he do?From the day he fled to Yecheng, he could only take one step at a time, and one day at a time.The current situation is the same, knowing that it is not an option to procrastinate like this, he can only procrastinate for one day. At this point, An Qingxu could only say to Gao and Zhang weakly, "Whatever you want, you can go if you want." When Shi Siming saw Gao Shang and Zhang Tongru, he immediately cried bitterly, poured out bitterness, and acted like a faithful savior but was mistrusted by others. Then he gave them a generous gift and sent them back to the city respectfully. In fact, at this point, the people of the Yan Dynasty basically belonged to Shi Siming.Three days later, Shi Siming secretly met with An Qingxu's confidant, An Taiqing, and ordered him to find a way to lure An Qingxu out of the city. An Taiqing immediately returned to the city to create public opinion.In the end, An Qingxu had no choice but to order An Taiqing to submit a letter to Shi Siming and bow down to him under the unanimous condemnation of all civil and military officials, even with both soft and hard measures.However, An Qingxu still didn't intend to leave the city.He asked An Taiqing to tell Shi Siming, asking him to "disarm and enter the city", saying that he would personally "present the seal and ribbon". To disarm and enter the city, to prosecute the seal and ribbon? Hearing such words, Shi Siming sneered in his heart.If I really disarm and enter the city, I am afraid that I will see the swordsman before I see the Emperor Xishou, right? Shi Siming quickly replied to An Qingxu with a letter, saying: "I would like to be a country of brothers, and even more to be an aid to the fence. Standing on a tripod, it is like a commoner; I dare not accept the gift from the north." (Volume 221 ) and returned the form of surrender to An Qingxu. Shi Siming's words mean: You and I will be a country of brothers from now on, and we will support each other whenever there is a situation.It's fine for everyone to stand together, as for the matter of facing the north and proclaiming a minister, I absolutely dare not accept it. After seeing Shi Siming's reply, An Qingxu felt a little lucky.He felt that what Shi Siming said was quite sincere, and it should not be a trap, so he asked to meet Shi Siming in surprise and joy, and asked the two parties to make blood for an alliance. Shi Siming immediately extended a warm invitation to An Qingxu. A few days later, An Qingxu happily entered Shi Jun's camp with only 300 personal soldiers.Shi Siming ordered the three hundred people to wait outside the big tent, and then kindly led An Qingxu into the big tent. As soon as he entered the tent, An Qingxu bowed his head to Shi Siming: "I am incompetent, I have lost both capitals, and I have been surrounded for a long time. I didn't expect that the king would remember the old love of the Supreme Emperor. He came all the way to rescue and brought the minister back from the dead. There is no way to repay the virtue of a minister who puts his heels on his head!" An Qingxu felt that since his life and the throne were both saved, he might as well lower his figure a bit and flatter Shi Siming without losing a piece of flesh on his body.Furthermore, to make Shi Siming happy, if there is any crisis in Yecheng in the future, he will definitely be able to receive the "aid of the fence" from the "brotherly country" again. However, it turns out that this is just An Qingxu's fantasy. After he knelt on the ground and kissed his ass with emotion, Shi Siming's deafening roar suddenly sounded above his head: "It's not enough to lose the two capitals! As a son of man, killing your father and taking his position is unacceptable in heaven and earth! I beg for thieves for the Supreme Emperor, how can I be flattered by you?" (Volume 221) An Qingxu raised his head in despair, and saw that behind Shi Siming's scowling face was a triumphant and ferocious smile. Older gingers are more spicy. In the end, An Qingxu couldn't beat Shi Siming. On the same day, Shi Siming beheaded An Qingxu and his four younger brothers, together with Gao Shang, Sun Xiaozhe, Cui Qianyou and others. At the same time, he brought Zhang Tongru, An Taiqing, Li Tingwang and others under his command, and granted them new official positions. Gao Shang and Zhang Tongru have been fighting openly and secretly for a long time, so far it has come to an end. Later, Shi Siming led his army into Yecheng, opened the treasury to reward the soldiers, and then sent people to various places to take over the states and counties and their tribes under An Qingxu's jurisdiction.Shi Siming originally wanted to take advantage of the victory and go south to attack Luoyang, but then he thought that he had just seized power and his foundation was not stable, so he left his son Shi Chaoyi to guard Yecheng, and led his troops back to Fanyang. In mid-April of the second year of Qianyuan, Shi Siming established himself as the Emperor of Dayan in Fanyang and changed Yuan Shuntian; he made his wife Xin the queen, his son Shi Chaoyi the king of Huai, appointed Zhou Zhi as the prime minister, and Li Guiren as the general. Changed Fan Yang to Yanjing. When the news of Shi Siming proclaiming himself emperor reached Chang'an, Suzong Li Heng suddenly felt dizzy.He thought that the world would be fixed in the future, but unexpectedly, the situation suddenly changed again, and everything was out of his control. Li Heng couldn't figure it out: Why is this damn rebellion like leeks in spring, one stubble is cut and another stubble grows?Behind An Lushan is An Qingxu, and behind An Qingxu is Shi Siming. God knows how many people will want to be king and emperor behind this Shi Siming?God knows when this kind of war-torn and turbulent days will end...