Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 427: The message
A message was quickly circulated in various counties in Hebei, saying that the imperial court appointed Prince Li Cong as the general marshal of the expedition, commanding an army of 300,000, and was about to send troops to Tumen Pass.

This was discussed with Yuan Luqian before Xue Bai left Changshan County. He wanted to gain a head start, which could not only quickly instigate officials from various places, but also create public opinion and force the court to actually issue such an appointment.

The two of them acted separately, which was a great test of whether they could cooperate tacitly. Yuan Luqian sent a message in advance to alert the enemy, so Xue Bai had to send troops as soon as possible. But in fact, the time left for Xue Bai was very short. He not only had to win the support of the Hedong coach, but also had to prepare his troops.

Even with Li Guangbi, this would still be difficult to accomplish.

After seizing Wang Chengye's military power, Li Guangbi quickly began to pour cold water on Xue Bai.

He spread out the strategic map drawn by Xue Bai, shook his head, and said: "Xue Lang was very gentle when he encouraged us. It seems that as long as he sends troops to Jingxing, the counties in Hebei will respond and cut off the back of Anlu Mountain. By the way, the rebellion can be put down. But there is one key thing that has not been mentioned - the strength of the Tianbing Army is only 30,000 in name, but the actual number is only more than 10,000 horses, and the soldiers defend the northern capital. The formation has little experience and is far inferior to the frontier troops in Anlu Mountain. "Li Guangbi said: "Excluding the troops to defend Taiyuan, we can send out at least 7,000 soldiers in the city and field. This strength is not enough to meet Cai Xide's army of more than 20,000. It’s impossible to win, let alone the more than 100,000 people in Anlu Mountain?”

"General Li doesn't want to send troops anymore?" Xue Bai asked, knowing that the first step had been taken anyway. No matter how weak the troops were, Li Guangbi would not be able to do nothing to save Hebei like Wang Chengye.

"I can send troops, but it can only serve as a containment and threat. It is rare to be able to defend Jingxing. To really change the situation, the imperial court must send an army of 300,000 troops as stated in the memorandum."

"Can we recruit troops in Hedong?"

Li Guangbi glanced at Xue Bai doubtfully, and then said: "Xue Lang seems to have overlooked one thing. The rebellion of Anlu Mountain was caused by the rebellion of more than 100,000 troops in the two border towns of Fanyang and Pinglu. On such a scale, it is impossible to place hope on It is absolutely impossible to pacify it with half the troops from Hedong and half Hebei. The imperial court must send a large army. "

Without waiting for Xue Bai to answer, Li Guangbi added: "Even if you want to use rebellion to build strength for the prince, you should ask the imperial court for troops."

"Misunderstood." Xue Bai waved his hand and said in an overly candid manner: "It's not that I have selfish motives, it's just that I have no confidence in the saint."

This sentence silenced Li Guangbi for a long time, thinking that no wonder he had committed the serious crime of "criticizing Chengyu" in recent years.

He could only say: "No matter how much the saint trusts An Lushan, he will soon wake up."

Xue Bai asked again: "Can we recruit troops in Hedong?"

This time it was Li Guangbi's turn to smile bitterly and ask: "Where does the money and food come from?"

"Deal with the salt."

Speaking of this, Li Guangbi narrowed his eyes and carefully looked at the young man in front of him, suspecting that he might have started planning a few years ago to train a private army in Taiyuan.

After all, the overall situation of more than 100,000 or more than 300,000 troops is still far away from them, and they can't care about it for the time being. They soon started talking about how to defend Jingxing under Cai Xide's army offensive and become horns with Changshan.

Xue Bai has already given the plan, but there are still more details to implement it.

While they were talking, a school general rushed in quickly, walked to Li Guangbi, and in front of Xue Bai, he said in a dissatisfied tone without hesitation: "General, the imperial court has sent a supervisory army!"

~~
After finally hijacking Wang Chengye, another supervisor came, which inevitably made people feel discouraged.

But Xue Bai followed Li Guangbi out to greet him and looked into the distance from the high stone steps. The first thing he noticed was not the eunuch in purple robes and white face without beard at the front of the group of knights, but the eunuch riding a horse at the side. A young man.

He wasn't sure at first, so he took a few steps forward and saw that the young man was wearing a blue official robe and had a handsome face. The skin on his face was slightly dark. Although he was far away, he could clearly feel it. The other party felt a sense of vitality.

"Yan Twelve Lang?!"

"No blame!"

This young man who came with the supervisory army was actually Yan Jiming.

The summer morning light slanted on his face. He ran to Xue Bai in the sunshine, turned over and dismounted, showing a long-lost smile, with white teeth and sincere eyes.

Xue Bai was stunned for a moment. He stepped forward and held Yan Jiming's shoulders. He felt the solid sensation coming from his palm. Looking around, he could even see the slightly larger pores on his skin and the blackheads inside.

He was not dead, he was actually alive, and Yan Gaoqing had arrived in Pingyuan, and Li Guangbi was actually in charge of Taiyuan... All of this made Xue Bai feel that he had changed something.

It's like struggling to use a wooden stick to pry the rolling wheel of history. Each wooden stick keeps breaking "snap", but even if you continue to pry with a short length, you can finally pry a little.

I believe that this small change in trajectory will gradually lead to a change in the general direction.

Maybe it would be a pity for the calligraphy community that there is no "Manuscript for Nephew" in this world, but Xue Bai doesn't care.

"What's wrong?" Yan Jiming smiled and said, "We haven't seen you for a long time. Am I even more handsome?"

Xue Bai came back to his senses and said, "It's great to see you."

"How did you know I brought good news..."

"Cough cough!"

A heavy cough interrupted the two young men's reminiscence. They turned their heads and saw a purple-robed eunuch standing there, looking at them with bright eyes.

Xue Bai recognized the other party. Gao Xianzhi, the former supervisor of the army, destroyed Bian Lingcheng of Xiaobolu Kingdom.

Just like a pig that grows stronger after being castrated, Bian Lingcheng actually has a tall and majestic figure. If it weren't for the beard on his face, anyone who looked at him would think that he was a battle-experienced general, and indeed he was. The expedition to Xiaobolu, the crossing of Bolechuan, and the surprise attack on Lianyun Castle were all difficult and dangerous journeys, which were not something ordinary people could do.

"Why is Mr. Xue still in Taiyuan?" Bian Lingcheng looked a little serious and said, "The news that the saint has received is that you have gone to Changshan to take up your post."

"I just arrived in Taiyuan from Changshan. The memorial was delivered to Chang'an yesterday."

Bian Lingcheng had just arrived and didn't understand the situation, so he looked at Wang Chengye.

Wang Chengye was silent, just nodded and said nothing.

That night, Taiyuan Prefecture held a banquet to welcome Bian Lingcheng.

However, Xue Bai and Yan Jiming left the banquet early and walked to the city wall to talk.

Standing between the walls and looking into the distance, although they only saw the starry sky, they seemed to also see the devastation of the northern land.

"It rained continuously in Guanzhong, and the seedlings in the field were soaked." Yan Jiming said, "My uncle reminded the saint several times, but it made the saint unhappy."

"My father-in-law has returned to Chang'an?"

"This is the good news I want to tell you." Yan Jiming turned his head, showed his bright smile again, and said: "Prince Xinuoluo of the Subi tribe led his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty."

"it is good."

The surrender of the Subi tribe was something that Yan Zhenqing had been busy with in the past two years. This was a counterattack against Tubo's instigation of the Nanzhao rebellion. If it had not been for the An Lushan rebellion, this matter could have had a more significant impact on Tubo.

When Yan Zhenqing went to Longyou, Yan Jiming happened to be attending a wedding in Chang'an. In order to prevent him from tragedy, Xue Bai deliberately asked Yan Zhenqing to take him with him. Now it finally paid off.

"This matter is not easy. Although Tubo is loose, it is very wary of the Supi tribe." Yan Jiming said: "We secretly contacted several Tubo ministers before we found the opportunity. Last month, Xinolo and his tribe arrived in Chang'an. The saint named him King Huaiyi and named him 'Li Zhongxin'."

"Li Zhongxin?"

Xue Bai repeated it in a low voice, feeling that the name was very similar to several names he had heard before.

Yan Jiming added: "On the day when Li Zhongxin paid homage to the saint, the traitor Li Xianzhong was also escorted to Chang'an."

As he spoke, he looked up at the sky and recalled the scene in his mind...

It was mid-May, and news of An Lushan's rebellion had just reached Chang'an. Even Yan Zhenqing, who had just returned from Longyou, heard about it. However, the surrender of the Subi tribe was still received grandly, and the saint took time out of his busy schedule to hold a grand banquet. Before the banquet, there was a prisoner dedication ceremony for Cheng Ang, the protector of the North Courtyard. Absi, who was named "Li Xianzhong", his wife, children, and his tribe were escorted into Chang'an City. The saint ordered to behead them. Arbus.

This was a kind of shock. It not only showed Prince Li Zhongxin of Supi the consequences of daring to betray the Tang Dynasty, but also made the world believe that the Anlushan rebellion would soon be put down.

However, Absi's loud curse before his death greatly damaged the saint's prestige.

"Dark Lord!"

Yan Jiming uttered these two words in a low voice and forcefully, and then finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's what Li Xianzhong shouted at that time."

Xue Bai said: "What do you think?"

Yan Jiming was stunned and said: "Of course I am loyal to the Tang Dynasty."

"These are two things." Xue Bai said, "If you are loyal to the country, you should be outspoken. Otherwise, how are you different from a treacherous person?"

Yan Jiming lowered his head and thought for a while, then said slowly: "The saint cleansed away the demonic winds of Wuzhou and created the prosperous age of Kaiyuan. In my eyes, he has always been the emperor of the Holy Tomorrow that has never been seen in the ages."

If he said that, Xue Bai would not be honest with Yan Jiming because he had some thoughts. They could talk about less secret things.

"But." Yan Jiming said again: "This time I returned to Chang'an and watched the saint kill Li Xianzhong, but I felt that Li Xianzhong was right. The saint allowed An Lushan to force him to rebel. Now An Lushan has rebelled. The saint is indeed A little confused."

"Has the imperial court come up with any measures to counter the rebellion?"

"When I left Chang'an, I heard that the sage wanted to lead the expedition in person." Yan Jiming said.

Xue Bai was surprised and said: "Really?"

"It is said that Yang Guozhong strongly opposed it, but the result is still unknown."

"The best counterinsurgency time is wasted little by little in this decision-making process."

Yan Jiming nodded in agreement and felt a little relieved.

There were many things that he did not dare to say in front of his elders in Chang'an, but he could talk freely with Xue Bai in Taiyuan.

"The courtiers were very surprised that the saint was sent to supervise the army." Yan Jiming said, "It is clear that An Lushan has rebelled, but he sent Bian Lingcheng to supervise the army in Hedong. I can't figure it out..."

"Let me guess," Xue Bai said, "because the saint believed that there was another conspiracy behind An Lushan's rebellion. Although he favored An Lushan, he looked down on that Zahu at all and never thought that Zahu could replace him. "Right now, what the saint is really wary of is not the rebels, but someone using the rebellion to his disadvantage."

Yan Jiming took a deep breath and said, "I don't understand."

Xue Bai tapped his fingers lightly on the battlements while observing his expression, made a judgment in his heart, and decided to win his support frankly.

Extraordinary times, do extraordinary things.

"When Bian Lingcheng arrived at Taiyuan Mansion, he could indeed find something wrong. For example, Wang Chengye has been held hostage by us."

"What?" Yan Jiming was shocked.

But after being surprised, his reaction was not to report Xue Bai for meritorious service. Instead, he lowered his voice and said, "This matter cannot be hidden. What are you going to do? Control Bian Lingcheng as well?"

Xue Bai shook his head and said: "Bian Lingcheng is different from Wang Chengye. The supervisor is the emperor's eyes and cannot be blinded. What's more, we have to use him to ask the prince to be the generalissimo of the expedition. He is greedy for money, so we can try to bribe him. he."

Speaking of the prince, Yan Jiming was stunned. "After that, we can recruit troops in Hedong to contain Anlu Mountain and increase our strength at the same time." Xue Bai said: "Anlu Mountain raised troops in the name of the Qing Emperor. Yang Guozhong may not be the prime minister for long. When the saint finds out that the rebels are difficult to attack, If you block it, there is no guarantee that Yang Guozhong will not be punished to appease the anger of the rebels. Who do you think is suitable to be prime minister?"

"Who?"

Yan Jiming hadn't reacted yet, but Xue Bai didn't answer, so he understood immediately and asked in a weak voice: "Uncle?"

If Xue Bai's idea is really followed, Li Cong will be the general marshal of the expedition, Yan Zhenqing will be the prime minister in the court, and Li Longji will even be asked to abdicate. Once the power relationship is resolved, practical problems will naturally be solved.

When Yan Jiming first arrived in Taiyuan, he was quickly shocked by Xue Bai's assumptions.

"What's the purpose of doing this?"

"Do you need to say more? In order to suppress the rebellion and preserve the Tang Dynasty." Xue Bai said: "I am the governor of Changshan. I came to Taiyuan to lend troops to support Changshan. As I just said, I bribed Bian Lingcheng and asked him to speak for us. , can you help?"

"How to bribe him?"

"HSBC is my property." Xue Bai patted Yan Jiming's shoulder and said, "As long as he agrees to speak for us, it doesn't matter how many shares he wants."

Before Yan Jiming could fully react, he felt two taps on his shoulder and he was already on the pirate ship.

……

A few days later, before the sky was completely bright, Xue Bai had already arrived at Shiling Pass under the stars.

Dimly, he saw rows of soldiers standing in the open space in Guancheng, stretching as far as the eye could see.

The bonfire not far away was still bright, and Li Guangbi and Wang Rao were making final preparations before setting off next to the bonfire.

After several days of preparation, Li Guangbi finally managed to pull out a force of more than 5,000 troops. He ordered Wang Bao to lead it and follow Xue Bai to support Changshan County, so as to build momentum and allow more counties in Hebei to respond.

They left Shiling Pass at dawn and turned east, avoiding Cai Xide's probing horses as much as possible.

In front of them, Cai Xide had already divided some troops into Jingxing.

As long as Xue Bai and Wang Rao defeat this rebel army, they can reduce Taiyuan's defensive pressure. By then, in front of them will be a Hebei with empty rebel forces and all counties and counties preparing to bring order to the chaos.

At this moment, An Lushan must be attacking Luoyang.

Xue Bai's main purpose was to buy time to cut off An Lushan's retreat, cut off his food and fodder, and disrupt his army's morale before he captured Luoyang.

~~
The sixth day of June.

This is the thirty-fourth day of An Lushan's rebellion.

No one expected that in just thirty-four days, he would attack all the way from Xiongwu City to the outskirts of Kaifeng City.

Among them, it only took twenty-seven days to occupy Hebei and Yinma's Yellow River. Almost all the prefectures and counties passed through were defeated, and only four days were delayed in Changshan County.

After they actually raised their troops, the rebels discovered that the powerful hinterland of the Tang Dynasty was extremely empty of troops. There was no city along the way that had enough troops to compete with them.

Only the mighty Yellow River almost stopped them.

But for this great cause, Gao Shang had already made full preparations. He gathered a large number of ships on the canal and ordered the rebels to tie the ships together. This formed an extremely spectacular scene, as if a battle had been carried out overnight on the Yellow River. Floating bridges were built.

At this time, the Tang court had received news from Changshan County and urgently appointed Zhang Jie as Henan Jiedushi to guard Kaifeng.

Seeing that the rebels had tied the ships together, Zhang Jie ordered his soldiers to attack with fire. However, in the face of the absolute superiority of troops, the fire could not burn the ships at all. Before Tang's soldiers could step forward, they were completely forced back by the rebels' arrows.

Zhang Jie then remembered that the soldiers in Henan had not been in battle for a long time. The last time they went out to fight was with Pei Dun to suppress the pirates, but they also falsely claimed their military exploits.

Before he could give the second order, Tian Chengsi's rebel vanguard army had already swarmed in, and Zhang Jie had no choice but to order to return to Kaifeng City and defend it.

He galloped back to Kaifeng City, but he didn't know that from the top of Kaifeng City, he saw a dense formation of more than 100,000 rebels spread across both sides of the Yellow River, which was enough to frighten the officials who stayed behind.

So, when Zhang Jie finally rushed back to Kaifeng, he found that the officials who stayed behind had surrendered to the city.

Zhang Jie was furious, reined in his horse and returned his sword, leading the few remaining soldiers around him to face the overwhelming rebel army.

"kill!"

Tian Chengsi drew his bow and arrow in person, shot Zhang Jie off his horse with one arrow, and shouted: "Bring up the head!"

Just after crossing the Yellow River, they had already captured the important town in Henan.

Subsequently, the rebels took advantage of the situation and attacked Xingyang, which was only a short two hundred miles away from Luoyang.

"Ten days! Within ten days, Fujun will enter Luoyang City!"

"On the day the city is destroyed, you can take whatever you want!"

"..."

One after another exciting orders were passed on, and the rebels were so powerful that they rushed to the east capital with an unstoppable force. At this moment, even if Luoyang City got the news, it would not be able to mobilize enough troops to defend.

It's a day with heavy rain.

A group of people galloped on horseback in the rain and caught up with Tian Chengsi's group.

"Shut up!"

The leading knight rushed to Tian Chengsi and took off the hat on his head, revealing a horribly burned cheek.

"Gao Shang? Why are you chasing me?"

"I'll go with you." Gao Shang said, "I have something to do when I pass by Yanshi."

When Tian Chengsi heard this, he immediately understood and shouted loudly: "Have all the heroes heard it? Mr. Gao has rewarded Yanshi County to you!"

Then, he waved his hand and gave a few instructions, and the generals passed on his orders one after another.

"With the general's orders, we all marched quickly and settled in Yanshi County at night. After breaking the city, we burned and killed!"

"Hahaha, bento is the appetizer before attacking Luoyang..."

Amid the cheers, Tian Chengsi looked at Gao Shang and asked, "Are you satisfied?"

"Even if you raze Yanshi to the ground, what I lost will never come back."

Gao Shang's face was very solemn, and he said: "I'm worried that your attack on Yanshi County will not go smoothly."

"what."

Tian Chengsi didn't even bother to refute. He marched straight in and attacked Luoyang in a month. He even conquered a major town like Kaifeng in one fell swoop. How could he be afraid of a small county town.

Gao Shang said: "Don't forget what happened when you were in Changshan County."

"So what? Xue Bai can't defend Zhending City." Tian Chengsi said, "It's just a mouse running around."

"It has only been a few days since he arrived in Zhending. How long has he been running Yanshi?" Gao Shang said, "My eyelids are twitching so much. The closer I get to Yanshi, the more bad premonition I have."

"You're burned out."

Tian Chengsi glanced north again in the rain and said, "Presumably at this time, Xue Bai has been chopped into pieces by Cai Xide's army."

Gao Shang was about to speak when another knight rushed towards him from behind.

"What's the matter?"

"The Lord Fu asked Mr. Gao to wait at the nearest post house. After the army arrives, the Lord Fu has important questions to ask."

Gao Shang glanced west, anxious to go to Yanshi, and asked curiously: "But what happened in Kaifeng?"

"It seems that news came back from the north."

Gao Shang couldn't help but wonder, the whole Hebei Province was waiting for the wind and the few soldiers in Taiyuan City were blocked by Cai Xide. What news from the north could be urgent enough to make Fujun march in the rain?

He thought about something and asked tentatively: "Could it be related to Xue Bai."

The next day, Gao Shang rushed to An Lushan to pay his respects, and it was as he expected.

"Changshan County rebelled. Xue Bai and Yuan Luqian issued notices to all counties, falsely claiming that the Tang court had 300,000 troops coming out of Jingxing..."

An Shouzhong on the side scolded: "What a fart, in just one month, let me see if you can give birth to an army of 300,000 soldiers!"

"It's obviously a lie." Gao Shang said: "The Tang army is in Hebei, even if Hedong is included, there are not even 30,000 people."

Yan Zhuang, who was reading the battle report, frowned and said, "That being said, the Tang army attacked our baggage."

"How many troops does Changshan County have?"

"More than that, according to the news, Xue Bai has a lot of troops."

Gao Shang didn't believe it, so he stretched out his hand to snatch the news from Yan Zhuang's hand and read it for himself.

However, Yan Zhuang did not want to lose his morale in public. He hid for a moment, rolled up the message, carefully thought about his words, and said slowly: "There is another more ridiculous thing. Eleven counties north of the Yellow River have responded. They promoted Xue Bai as the so-called leader of the alliance..."

"We must not tolerate this!" An Lushan suddenly became furious again, threw his wine glass, interrupted their nonsense, and shouted: "Tell me, what should I do?!"

Gao Shang attached great importance to Xue Bai and immediately said: "Please send a general back to the north to kill Xue Bai. I am willing to go with you."

An Lushan's small eyes were filled with murderous intent. He looked around the tent and asked, "Who's going?!"

Gao Shang was determined to get rid of Xue Bai, and immediately looked at the one among the generals who was the safest in marching and fighting...

(End of this chapter)