Tibet.

Chapter 1252: The Hero’s Farewell
Tian Chengsi led the army to the city of Raoyang County, but was stunned. He saw that the gates of Raoyang County were closed, flags were waving on the top of the city, a flag of the Guanlong Army was erected, and the top of the city was full of soldiers.

It turned out that Xi Wanli had known that he would plunder the city, so he sent three thousand men to take a detour to Raoyang County, occupy the county seat first, and move the people from the villages around the county seat into the city.

At this moment, Tian Chengsi was completely in despair, and his soldiers were also in despair. They had run out of food and had been hungry since breakfast, and had not even had lunch.

For the army, the biggest taboo is the cut off of food. Once the army is hungry, desertion is a minor matter. The biggest problem is internal strife and mutiny, and even the commander-in-chief may be killed.

So why did the army eat people in history? It was because they had no other choice. They would rather eat people than let the soldiers starve.

Tian Chengsi made up his mind and shouted, "Tear down the houses, find wood to build a bridge, use a human ladder to climb up the city, and attack the city. All the women and wealth in the city are yours to take!"

When pushed to the limit, there is always a way out. The cavalry rushed to several nearby villages, searched for food, demolished houses, and took out the beams one by one.

They did find some yams, radishes, melons, beans and the like, which the soldiers used to make soup. At this time, the soldiers also built two simple floating bridges.

There was no time left, so Tian Chengsi immediately ordered the entire army to attack the city, including the Donghu soldiers, who also rushed up to build human ladders and began to climb up.

At this time, all the citizens in the city went up to the city walls. Men, women, old and young fought desperately with the other side. Logs and rocks were thrown down. The Tang army soldiers stabbed with spears, chopped with swords, and bit with their teeth. Both sides were blood-thirsty.

At this moment, a series of low horn sounds came from several miles away, "Woo-woo-woo"

The 40,000 main cavalry of the Tang army arrived. Xi Wanli certainly would not use 50,000 cavalry to fight against the enemy's 18,000 weak troops and waste time. He ordered Wei Ran to lead his own 10,000 cavalry to fight against the enemy, and he led 40,000 cavalry to rush towards Raoyang County.

Seeing the Tang cavalry coming in overwhelming numbers, Tian Chengsi sighed and had to abandon his army and flee north with his sons and more than a hundred personal soldiers.

Tian Chengsi's army collapsed and retreated in all directions. The Donghu cavalry had no horses left; their horses were in the rear and had been captured by the Tang army.

The pontoon bridge was in chaos and crowds. Soldiers were scrambling for the first position and crying. Arrows rained down from the city walls, and countless soldiers fell into the moat.

Tens of thousands of Tang cavalry had already reached the moat. The soldiers were cornered and knelt down to surrender. The soldiers who wanted to escape also had no hope. Twenty thousand cavalrymen, one in the south and one in the north, cut off the soldiers' escape route.

Only a few thousand Donghu soldiers refused to surrender. Even without war horses, they fought desperately to break out to the south. Xi Wanli was furious and ordered their complete annihilation without leaving any survivors.

More than 3,000 Donghu soldiers were surrounded by 10,000 Tang cavalry. Their numbers became fewer and fewer as the battle went on, and eventually they all disappeared, becoming victims of the Tang cavalry's knives.

Of the 24,000 troops, except for Tian Chengsi who escaped with more than a hundred personal soldiers, the rest of the soldiers either surrendered or died, and the entire army was destroyed.

A rare scene also occurred among the 18,000 people who were sent to harass the Tang army. Ten thousand soldiers of the Hezong Army were dissatisfied with Tian Chengsi's unfair treatment. The Dongsheng Army and the Jinwei Army all ate horse meat last night, but they didn't even have a sip of soup.

The entire army was extremely angry and turned against their own side in the battle. The main general Tian Qianzhen and the deputy general Yang Guoye were killed by the rebels, and all 18,000 soldiers surrendered.

A clever strategy of cutting off the source of the firewood cut off Tian Chengsi's food supply, and eventually led to the annihilation of Tian Chengsi's 120,000-strong army.

Tian Chengsi led his sons and personal soldiers to plunder food and head north. His only thought now was to surrender to the Uighurs and serve as their guide to the south. Perhaps he still had a chance to survive.

That evening, Tian Chengsi and his party arrived at Gaoyang County, the northernmost part of Yingzhou.

The county gate was wide open, and the county magistrate Tang An led a group of officials out of the city to welcome them.

Tang An and Tian Chengsi are from the same hometown. Tang An used to be an assistant teacher in the county school. When he was young, he went to Tian Chengsi and was recommended to An Lushan by Tian Chengsi. An Lushan then appointed him as the magistrate of Gaoyang County, a position he has held until today.

Tian Chengsi had been running for three days in a row and was exhausted. When he saw that it was an old friend, he felt relieved and ordered his men to go into the city to rest.

Tian Chengsi and his party were invited into the county posthouse. By then, night had fallen. After eating and drinking, everyone was already exhausted and fell asleep one after another.

In the middle of the night, one of the men was suddenly awakened by crackling sounds. He opened the window and found that there was a raging fire outside.

The soldier was shocked and shouted, "My Lord, there is a fire!"

Tian Chengsi and his men were also awakened and rushed into the yard, where they saw flames all around.

Suddenly, a pile of burning things flew in the air and landed in the yard with a "boom!" It turned out to be a pile of wheat straw that had been set on fire. Everyone understood that the county magistrate had set a trap to burn them to death.

Everyone was so angry that they started cursing, but Tian Chengsi didn't have time to curse. He immediately ordered, "Go to the stable and get the horses!"

A dozen men ran towards the stable.

After a while, he came back to report, "Your Majesty, the horses are gone!"

"Damn it!"

Tian Chengsi gnashed his teeth in hatred and ordered, "Grab your weapons and charge out!"

Several sons and personal soldiers guarded Tian Chengsi with swords and rushed towards the front gate.

The entire posthouse was engulfed in flames, and the fire grew larger as it got to the outside. The personal soldiers fought desperately to open a way out and rushed towards the gate.

As soon as they arrived outside the gate, they were greeted by a hail of arrows. The personal soldiers, who were not wearing armor, were shot and fell to the ground one after another.

The hundreds of archers were militiamen organized by the county.

Tian Chengsi vaguely saw Tang An's figure and immediately shouted, "Tang An, who promoted you back then? How dare you be so ungrateful!"

Tang An also shouted back: "You traitor, you have ruined Hebei to such an extent, how dare you continue to live?"

Tian Chengsi was so angry that he shouted, "Kill them and take the head of this bastard."

His personal soldiers rushed out to protect Tian Chengsi at all costs.

Tang An shouted, "Fellow villagers, the traitor Tian Chengsi is here, avenge your dead parents and brothers!"

Thousands of angry county residents holding sticks, hoes and spears rushed from all directions and surrounded Tian Tian Chengji and dozens of others. Hatred flashed in their eyes and they hit them with sticks and hoes like raindrops.

The great hero Tian Chengsi died tragically in Gaoyang County.

In Hejian County, an army of 80,000 was lined up, ready to attack the city at any time.

Guo Ziyi just received an order from Li Ye, "Don't be afraid of street fighting, take Hejian as soon as possible!"

Guo Ziyi was indeed an experienced veteran. He divided the one thousand firearms soldiers into five hundred groups, with two people in each group, and then equipped each brigade with one group.

Then five hundred brigades were deployed in the street fighting, with one hundred men in each brigade, for a total of fifty thousand troops.

Guo Ziyi set the important attack point at the East City Gate because the warehouses in the city were close to the East City.

The four city gates were attacked simultaneously.

Three hundred steps away, a crossbowman raised a three-stone crossbow and aimed at the suspension bridge three hundred steps away.

The crossbowman was called Li Kuan, a native of Chang'an. He had won the championship in crossbow shooting competitions for two consecutive times, and never missed his target within 300 steps.

Li Kuan was a little nervous at this time. After all, he was using explosive arrows, and it was his first time using such a powerful crossbow.

Li Kuan took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

"Crack!"

The explosive arrow shot out instantly, accurately hitting the upper left corner of the suspension bridge. "Boom!" Splinters of wood flew everywhere, and the iron chains of the suspension bridge flew up, and the huge suspension bridge sank heavily.

(End of this chapter)