Chapter 9 Lee Kwang-pil's method

The disastrous defeat in Yecheng undoubtedly dealt another heavy blow to the Tang Empire, which had just recovered a little bit of vitality. It will take a few more years for the empire to gather so many soldiers and horses, raise so much money and food, and fight such a large-scale counter-insurgency campaign? No one knows the answer. It's not that he doesn't know how to calculate this account, but he dare not. Obviously, this unexpected failure made Suzong Li Hengzhi heartbroken, and disappointed the government and the opposition.Therefore, someone must take this responsibility.

Of course, Yu Chaoen, the envoy who watched the army, would not take on this responsibility.Without even thinking about it, he pinned the blame on Guo Ziyi.Yu Chaoen has been jealous of Guo Ziyi's military achievements for a long time, and finds him very unpleasant, so this time he happened to catch him as a scapegoat. After Yu Chaoen returned to Beijing, he kept nagging in Li Heng's ear day and night, saying that just after the two armies fought, he saw Guo Ziyi fleeing first. Guo Ziyi didn't argue, he was willing to take the blame. The reason is simple, Yu Chao'en is a celebrity in front of the emperor, if he wins and returns to the court, the credit will naturally go to him; now that he is defeated, the responsibility will naturally fall to the Nine Grand Envoys.And Guo Ziyi, as the head of the Nine Great Jiedu Envoys, if he doesn't take the blame, who else can, who else is willing to take the blame?

In July of the second year of Qianyuan, Suzong recalled Guo Ziyi from the front line of Luoyang to Chang'an, and asked Li Guangbi to replace him as Shuofang Jiedu envoy, and expressed that he would let Li Guangbi be the marshal of the world's soldiers and horses.Li Guangbi suggested very sensitively and cautiously that it is better to send a prince to be the marshal, and it is enough to be the deputy himself.Suzong was very satisfied with what he heard, and immediately appointed Zhao Wang Li Xi (the second son of Li Heng) as the Marshal of the Army and Horses of the World, and Li Guangbi as the Deputy Marshal.

Guo Ziyi was dismissed from all positions in this way.On the day he left Beijing, the soldiers of Shuofang wept unceasingly and blocked him on the road one after another to prevent him from leaving.Guo Ziyi suppressed tears and said to them: "I am going to see a farewell party for a friend who left Beijing today, and I will not leave for the time being." The soldiers believed it and gave way.Guo Ziyi immediately swung his whip and galloped away without looking back. After Guo Ziyi left, all his military power was transferred to Li Guangbi. In other words, Li Guangbi at this time has become the leader of the empire's trump card army - the Shuofang Army.

However, although military power can be handed over within a day or two, it is not so easy to hand over the morale of Shuofang soldiers. Li Guangbi knew very well that Guo Ziyi had made great contributions to the empire over the years, and treated everyone with kindness, and was deeply supported by Shuofang soldiers. Now that he was blamed for the defeat of Yecheng and was replaced by his own dynasty, the Shuofang soldiers would definitely not accept it.Although the imperial court granted him the post of Shuofang Jiedushi, this does not mean that he will automatically win the support of the soldiers.In other words, if you want to be the boss of the Shuofang Army, you must not only rely on a letter of appointment from the imperial court, but also rely on your own abilities and means!

In order to prevent Shuofang soldiers from playing tricks when he entered Luoyang to take over the army, Li Guangbi did not dare to enter the city openly during the day, but quietly entered Luoyang late at night with 500 cavalry from east of the river full of vigilance. After Li Guangbi took office, he immediately carried out drastic rectification and issued a series of strict military orders one after another.In a few days, the military appearance of the Luoyang defenders changed drastically. Whether it was the mental outlook of the soldiers, the layout of the barracks, or even where the flags were planted, Li Guangbi's brand was clearly engraved on them.

Guo Ziyi's army has always been known for its tolerance and benevolence, while Li Guangbi's army is known for its strictness.Now that the new official takes office, Li Guangbi has to show his differences from Guo Ziyi in every way. As a result, the soldiers naturally missed Guo Ziyi more and more, and rejected Li Guangbi more and more. It was this general repulsion that almost sparked a mutiny. At that time, Zhang Yongji, the left wing soldier of the Shuofang Army, was stationed in Heyang, and Li Guangbi sent a call to him to meet him in Luoyang.Zhang Yongji had always been against Li Guangbi, but when he heard that he played tricks when he went to Luoyang, he immediately complained: "The Shuofang army is not a rebel army, and Li Guangbi entered at night, why is he so suspicious? "

Now, when Li Guangbi suddenly summoned him to meet him, Zhang Yongji was naturally full of suspicion. He suspected that Li Guangbi might have heard his complaints, so he wanted to make an example of him. Thinking about this, Zhang Yongji decided to disobey.He immediately summoned all the generals, intending to organize an elite force to break into Luoyang, expel Li Guangbi, and welcome Guo Ziyi back. Zhang Yongji has a fiery temper, and he does what he says.The commando team was quickly assembled, everyone was fully armed and their swords were unsheathed.Seeing that a mutiny was about to break out, Pu Gu Huai'en, who was known to Shuofang at the time, stopped Zhang Yongji.He said: "Duke Guo was indeed responsible for the defeat of Ye City, that's why the court gave up his military power. If you expel Li Guangbi today and forcefully welcome Duke Guo back, you are resisting the court and treason!"

At the same time, another general also urged Zhang Yongji: "If you launch a mutiny to welcome Guo Gong, the court must suspect that Guo Gong is instigating behind the scenes. If you do this, it is tantamount to ruining his family! Just ask Zhang Jun, how can Guo Gong's family feel sorry for you?" Are you going to put them to death?" Hearing the words, Zhang Yongji immediately realized the seriousness of the problem, and had no choice but to give up resentfully. Although this mutiny did not break out, but Zhang Yongji made such a big commotion, of course Li Guangbi would not be ignorant.

A few days later, Li Guangbi left Luoyang with thousands of cavalry in the name of inspection and defense, walked along the Yellow River to Sishui (northwest of Xingyang City, Henan Province today), and waited to see Zhang Yongji's reaction.Zhang Yongji knew that he could escape the first day of the junior high school but not the fifteenth day, so he had to bite the bullet and go to the camp to kowtow.Without further ado, Li Guangbi ordered Zhang Yongji to be pushed out of the gate and beheaded on the pretext of disobeying the military order. Zhang Yongji did not go to Luoyang to meet him in time, of course he violated the military order, but in any case he was not guilty of death, the only thing he could do was to beat dozens of army sticks.Now, the reason why Li Guangbi makes such a big fuss and kills Zhang Yongji is for the purpose of killing Zhang Yongji and deterring the three armies.

This is Li Guangbi's method. There is a saying that the early rafters rot first, and the impulsive Zhang Yongji unfortunately became the early rafters. Just as Zhang Yongji was pushed out of the gate and beheaded, Pugu Huai'en also entered Li Guangbi's camp on the back.As one of the main generals of the Shuofang Army, of course he also came to meet the new boss. Li Guangbi asked Pu Gu Huai'en to take a seat expressionlessly.Before the two of them could say a few words, Li Guangbi's guards went inside with a look of panic and reported that 500 barbarian cavalry had rushed straight into the camp, and now they had arrived at the gate of the big tent. Li Guangbi suddenly changed color. You don't need to think about it, these people are Pugu Wynn's subordinates. Pugu Huai'en glanced at Li Guangbi calmly, quickly got up and came to the door, pointed at the cavalrymen and sternly reprimanded them: "I told you all not to come, why did you still come?" Li Guangbi understood that this was a play designed by Pugu Huai'en and his subordinates to deter him with force, so as to prevent him from killing and turning Pugu Huai'en into the second Zhang Yongji. Li Guangbi patted Pugu Huai'en on the shoulder with a smile on his face, and said: "It's human nature for soldiers to follow the general, why blame them!" one line. The five hundred Huqi were greatly surprised, and felt quite flattered for a while. In this way, Li Guangbi didn't spend much effort and didn't take long to win over the hearts of Shuofang soldiers with both grace and power.Although there were still many people who disobeyed him from the bottom of their hearts, at least on the surface, they had to accept Li Guangbi's command and dispatch, and no one dared to disobey his military orders casually ever since. In September of the second year of Qianyuan (759 AD), after six months of recuperating, Shi Siming finally ignited the flames of war for the Southern Expedition. Shi Siming ordered his youngest son, Shi Chaoqing, to guard Fanyang, and then divided his troops into four groups: General Linghuzhang set out from Liyang (now Junxian County, Henan Province) to attack Huazhou (now Huaxian County, Henan Province); Puyang City), Shi Chaoyi led the way out of Baigao (now north of Huaxian, Henan), Zhou Zhi led the way out of Huliang (now in the east of Junxian, Henan), crossed the Yellow River respectively, and besieged Bianzhou (now Kaifeng, Henan) from three directions . Hundreds of thousands of Fan Yang cavalry set off yellow dust all over the sky, and rushed south amidst the earth-shattering sound of war drums. Everything is exactly the same as that scene four years ago. The only difference is - An Lushan was the protagonist at the beginning, but Shi Siming is now the protagonist. At this time, Li Guangbi was inspecting the defense on the south bank of the Yellow River. After receiving the battle report that the Yan army was going south, he immediately rushed to Bianzhou and said to Xu Shuji, the general guarding Bianzhou: "As long as you stick to it for fifteen days, I will definitely send troops to rescue." This Xu Shuji was the guy who huddled in Jianghuai and refused to rescue Suiyang.Don't talk about persisting for fifteen days, even if he persisted for three days, I'm afraid he won't be able to do it.Of course, Xu Shuji didn't dare to say that to Li Guangbi.He slapped his chest fiercely on the spot, and swore to Li Guangbi that he would live and die with the city no matter what. However, the later results can be imagined.As soon as Shi Siming's army arrived, the shrinking turtle was quickly defeated, and immediately surrendered without hesitation.Shi Siming immediately appointed Xu Shuji as the order of Zhongshu, and ordered him to still guard Bianzhou, and then took advantage of the victory to advance westward, directing his troops to Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Li Guangbi realized that there was no danger for Luoyang to defend, so he discussed with Wei Zhi who stayed behind in Tokyo and said: "Shi Siming came in a victory, and his troops are very sharp. ?” Wei Zhi understood that Li Guangbi wanted to give up Tokyo temporarily, but as the commander of the army, it was inconvenient to say such words, so he could only be said by him who stayed behind in Tokyo.Although Wei Zhi was very reluctant to give up Luoyang, he also knew that Li Guangbi's idea was correct from a strategic point of view. Wei Zhi then suggested that the main force withdraw from Tokyo, divide part of the army into Shan County, and the main force retreat into Tongguan. After hearing this, Li Guangbi smiled, waved his hands and said, "Temporary retreat is definitely necessary, but it cannot be too deep. If you abandon the defense of five hundred miles without reason, the enemy's arrogance will definitely become more arrogant. The current strategy is to retreat to the river." Yang, echoes the Zelu war zone in the north. If the situation is favorable, he will take the initiative to attack, and if the situation is unfavorable, he will stick to the danger, so that Shi Siming cannot advance half a step west. Wei Gong, when it comes to political matters, I am not as good as you; but in military affairs In terms of respect, you are not as good as me." In fact, Li Guangbi's words were too modest. His strategy of "withdrawing from Tokyo and retreating to Heyang" precisely took into account both military and political aspects.We all still remember that the reason why Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing lost their heads was because they only considered the military and retreated from Luoyang to Tongguan at once, "abandoning the defense for five hundred miles without reason", without any consideration of the political implications of doing so. What a grave mistake.If Li Guangbi did not learn from the past, he would surely repeat the mistakes of Gao and Feng. After Li Guangbi finished speaking, Wei Zhi did not refute, but another general questioned: "Luoyang is the imperial capital, how could it be given up so easily?" Li Guangbi glanced at him from the corner of his eye and said: "If you want to defend Luoyang, you should send heavy troops to the key points such as Sishui, Yanling (south of Dengfeng County, Henan today), and Longmen (south of Luoyang City, Henan Province today)." Deployment, as a general, you can tell me how to defend according to the current situation?" The man blinked his eyes for a long time, but couldn't say a word. Li Guangbi immediately issued a military order, ordering Wei Zhi to take all the civil and military officials and their families in Tokyo, and immediately go west to enter the pass; he ordered Henan Yin Li Ruoyou to be responsible for evacuating the people and taking refuge out of the city; finally, Li Guangbi ordered the soldiers to transport all the important materials in the city to the river. Positive. Li Guangbi's intention is obvious, that is to turn Luoyang into an empty city. When the Luoyang army and civilians evacuated in an orderly manner, Li Guangbi personally led 500 cavalry to the rear.At that time, Shi Siming's striker had already approached the stone bridge at the east gate of Luoyang.The soldiers asked Li Guangbi whether he should go to the north gate or the stone bridge. Li Guangbi said calmly: "Stone bridge." That night, Li Guangbi ordered the whole army to light their torches, maintain a dignified and dignified military appearance, and march slowly towards Heyang.The Yan army's forward troops were chasing after them, but they kept a distance and did not dare to approach.In the end, Yan Jun could only watch Tang Jun cross the Yellow River and enter Heyang calmly. On September 27 of this year, Shi Siming occupied Luoyang, Tokyo without bloodshed. However, all he got was an empty city. Shi Siming also knew that Luoyang had no danger to defend, so he camped near the White Horse Temple and built a moon city (semi-circular fortress) on the south bank of the Yellow River to confront Li Guangbi. Enemy Road is narrow. The two old rivals meet again. Shi Siming came aggressively, determined to win, and wanted to win the battle quickly. Li Guangbi, on the other hand, was calm and calm, unable to hold on, and prepared to fight a protracted battle with Shi Siming.