Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 496 Battle of Xianyang Bridge

Fengxiang, Xijing.

In the back hall of the Marshal's Mansion, Shen Zhenzhu sat in front of the stove holding a small fan. She smelled the aroma coming out of the pot and, regardless of the heat, quickly served the soup and brought it to the meeting hall in front.

On the way, she met Princess Cui Caiping.

"It smells really good. Go, ask her to serve me a cup too."

Cui Caiping was leaning against the railing bored, and when she saw Shen Zhenzhu, she sent her maids to stop her. Now that she had less food and clothing than before, she was really a little hungry.

Shen Zhenzhu quickly put the basket behind her and answered with her head down, "I stewed this for my husband."

Seeing that she didn't know what to do, Cui Caiping stepped forward and reached out to take the basket herself. Shen Zhenzhu refused to give it to her, so Cui Caiping smiled and touched her skirt, saying, "I heard that you have marks on your legs. Let me see."

Shen Zhenzhu's face changed drastically, and she took two steps back, saying in fear: "Princess, how did you know?"

Cui Caiping was about to speak when she heard some noise behind her. She turned around and saw Li Chu walking towards her with his hands behind his back and an unhappy look on his face.

"Are you bullying the Shen family again?!"

In the past, Li Chu would not have dared to scold Cui Caiping like this. At that time, Cui Caiping was born in the prominent family of Cui in Boling, and was the daughter of Lady Han. She had a high status and acted arrogantly at home, and he could only endure it. Now that the status of the Yang family has plummeted and Cui Xun died in Chang'an, Cui Caiping's originally prominent background has become the most hated thing by Li Chu, so naturally he would not be happy with her.

"I don't dare."

Cui Caiping had a bad temper, so she had to endure it at this time. After bowing, she whispered in Shen Zhuzhen's ear: "Do you really think he cares about you? You and I are in the same situation."

Shen Zhenzhu didn't understand what she meant by this. Her heart and eyes were filled with Li Chu. After she left, she stepped forward and said, "I made a nourishing soup for you, my dear, and added white peony, ginseng, and cinnamon. It's..."

"give it to me."

Before Shen Zhenzhu could finish, Li Chu reached out his hand, took the basket from her, and turned away. Shen Zhenzhu could not tell how she had saved money to gather the ingredients for the tonic soup, but she felt happy looking at his back.

Over there, Li Chu personally took the stewed soup out of the basket, scooped a spoonful, and brought it to Dugu Qin's mouth.

Dugu Qin was his new concubine, the daughter of a recorder in the imperial army. When Tongguan fell, she and her father fled with the emperor. Because of her exceptional beauty, Li Chu fell in love with her at first sight.

She was not in good health. She had traveled all the way from Lingwu to Fengxiang and was bedridden. She had no appetite. When she saw the soup spoon handed to her by Li Chu, she turned her head away.

"Drink a little?" Li Chu advised softly, "I feel so bad for you."

Dugu Qin shook her head, frowned slightly, and murmured, "I really want to eat the red date cake from Chang'an Fengweilou."

Li Chu was not angry at the three words "Fengweilou". He understood that she was unaware of the power behind Fengweilou and was just greedy. So, he liked her purity more.

He then held her hand and coaxed her, "Okay, just bear with it. Soon the royal army will be able to recapture Chang'an. I will take you to Longchi for boating and to Dongshi for red date cakes..."

~~
Chang'an, Forbidden Garden.

In the southwest corner of Longshouyuan, the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an during the Han Dynasty was surrounded by the Forbidden Garden and became a royal garden. It was not only a courtyard for the emperor to hunt and release eagles, and to entertain ministers, but also a place for the imperial army to stay.

Xue Bai climbed up the Yongmen Tower to the west of the Weiyang Palace, raised his telescope and looked out, and he could see the battlefield between the Weishui River and the Zaohe River.

As the war drums sounded, both sides slowly deployed their battle formations, stopping to readjust their formations every few dozen steps. Therefore, if you look at the overall situation, the process will seem extremely slow. After most of the morning, the two sides were still more than 300 steps apart.

Xue Bai was very patient. He moved a chair to sit on to save energy, and closed his eyes to rest during the interval between each drum beat.

"Report! The rebels are going to battle!"

"What is that? A chariot?"

“It’s a bullock cart.”

Xue Bai looked from afar and could see that the front of Fang Guan's formation was densely packed with chariots. He counted them and found that there were more than 2,000 chariots. There were cavalry guarding on both sides.

Presumably Fang Guan brought thousands of cattle and sheep as rations during his march, using ox carts as the front line, which could serve as a barrier for the rear line, and could also break up the formation on this side. It didn't matter even if the cattle were chopped to death, because they would be slaughtered as rewards to the army after the victory anyway.

"This is the battle method in the Spring and Autumn Period."

At this time, Yan Zhenqing also finished his other government affairs and hurried over. He walked to the window of the tower and looked at the battle formation, saying: "Mr. Fang has read a lot of military books."

"Father-in-law, do you mean that he is only good at talking big?" Xue Bai asked in a relaxed tone.

Yan Zhenqing asked in return: "Do you have a way to break the formation?"

"How about a fire attack?"

Yan Zhenqing raised his head to look at the flag, letting the wind blow his long beard, and murmured: "All I lack is the east wind."

The wind is light at this time, blowing from the southwest.

Xue Bai said calmly, "The wind direction will always change... Pass the order down, the rear army prepares firewood; the cavalry on both wings dismount and rest; and send someone to tell Wang Nandai that the front army should slow down the battle."

After that, he paced a few steps, called over the prisoner, and ordered: "If we can't wait for the wind to change, using explosives will be enough to scare the ox cart. Go and make the arrangements."

"Here!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Zhenqing smoothed his beard which had been messed up by the wind and said with emotion: "The world is changing so fast."

Firearms were developed from nothing to something in just a few years, so how effective could Fang Guan's use of the ancient Spring and Autumn warfare tactics be?

Looking at the battlefield again, Wang Nan had changed his previous tactics of charging bravely. It seemed that he was afraid of Fang Guan's ox cart formation, so he started to retreat before the battle even started.

When the troops were marching forward, it was easy for them to lose their formation and often needed to be adjusted, let alone retreating? The flags in each formation were waving. Some of the rear troops had not yet turned around, but the front troops had already retreated and were huddled together; some of the rear troops retreated too quickly, and the front troops lost support and lined up alone for a while, then retreated in panic, making the formation even more chaotic.

Fang Guan obviously saw the chaos in the Chang'an army and was overjoyed. He issued an order to attack, and the horns sounded loudly. Unfortunately, the ox carts were not moving very fast, which gave Wang a rare opportunity to adjust.

After all this trouble, more than an hour passed. At noon, in the Forbidden Garden, Xue Bai ordered the cavalry on both wings to eat and feed the horses first, waiting for the opportunity.

At the front line, Wang Nande was forced to the Zao River and had to face Fang Guan's ox cart. The two sides began to fight.

Seeing this, Xue Bai called over the messenger again and said, "Don't wait for the wind..."

He was confident that he could win no matter which way the wind blew, it would just be a matter of outcome.

"and many more."

Yan Zhenqing raised his hand, feeling the wind brushing against the back of his hand, and said, "Wait a little longer, the wind direction will change."

Xue Bai then stopped giving orders. He certainly believed in Yan Zhenqing. Although Yan Zhenqing was a good friend of Fang Guan, he was also his father-in-law. He knew Yan Zhenqing was loyal to the country, and he was confident that he was truly for the good of the Tang Dynasty.

~~
There were many wise men in Fang Guan’s tent.

In a corner of the tent sat the zither player Dong Tinglan, who was playing the famous song "Red Cliff". The sound of the zither was so majestic and powerful that it was perfect for the dubbing at this moment.

Dong Tinglan had been a retainer of Fang Guan for a long time. When Fang Guan was demoted because of Xue Bai, he was in a state of poverty for a while. Later, when Xue Bai and Li Longji competed in acting, he composed music for Xue Bai and was appreciated by Li Longji, and entered the opera garden. When Li Longji fled, he followed the team and followed Li Heng's army to Lingwu, where he reunited with Fang Guan and added elegance to Fang Cong.

Fang Guan had long enjoyed a great reputation and was fond of speaking. His talented disciples included not only Dong Tinglan, but also Li Yi, Song Ruosui, Wei Shaoyou, Jia Zhi and others. Some of them had a close relationship with Xue Bai.

Song Ruosi was a descendant of Luhun Mountain Villa in Yanshi County. After his family suffered a disaster, he sold his ancestral property and joined Fang Guan. Now that he knew Xue Bai was a traitor, he suddenly realized that he was persecuted by Xue Bai and became the vanguard of accusing Xue Bai.
Although Wei Shaoyou served as an official in Shuofang for a long time, his home was located in Shengpingfang, Chang'an City. He was a neighbor of Du Youlin, and it was his servant who rescued Xue Bai from the snow. Du Youlin lived up to his name, and it was because of this good neighbor that he became Xue Bai's benefactor.
Jia Zhi was a Jinshi, with great literary reputation, and was good friends with Gao Shi, Du Fu, Wang Wei, and Li Bai, so he had a good impression of Xue Bai. Now, when he heard that Xue Bai was a rebel, he also sighed.

Li Yi had no close relationship with Xue Bai. He was very trusted by Fang Guan. It was he who suggested that Fang Guan write a letter to Liu Zhi in Chang'an City, inviting Liu Zhi to join forces. At that time, Fang Guan said happily: "Although the enemy is very powerful, how can they defeat Liu Zhi?"

Unexpectedly, Liu Zhi was killed by Xue Bai with one knife, and he didn't make much splash until his death.

It doesn't matter. Li Yi quickly gave Fang Guan a second idea, which was the current oxcart formation. Seeing Wang Nan struggling and retreating, Fang Guan was very happy and said, "Although the enemy generals are sharp, how can they resist Li Yi's brilliant plan?"

"boom!"

A loud noise was heard in the distance, and Dong Tinglan's piano playing paused.

In the tent, a eunuch sitting next to Fang Guan stood up immediately and asked in a sharp voice: "What is that sound?!"

This eunuch was named Xing Yan'en, and was the adopted son of Li Fuguo. He had also shared hardships with Li Heng in Shaoyang Court, so he was appointed as the military supervisor. Since Tianbao, Li Heng had been persecuted by Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, and did not trust the officials in the court. Now that he was in power, he liked to use these eunuchs who had never left him.

"Don't be alarmed, military supervisor." Li Yi said, "This is the explosives in the enemy army. Although it makes a lot of noise, with the ox cart in front, it can't kill many of our soldiers..."

"Ox cart!" Jia Zhi's face changed.

Although he was a scholar, he knew that cows and horses were easily frightened.

Hearing the loud noises, everyone stood up and looked towards the front line, only to see smoke rising into the sky. It turned out that Xue Ni's rebels were setting fire.

Wei Shaoyou looked up and saw the flag flying to the north. He didn't know when the wind direction had changed and it was now blowing from the south.

"Oh no!"

It was too late to say anything. The ox cart that was originally rushing towards Xue Ni's rebel army was frightened and turned around and ran around. The cart was on fire, and the wind fanned the fire. The smoke and dust immediately blinded the soldiers' eyes, choking them and making them cry. Then they were hit by the ox cart and immediately turned around and fled.

The soldiers in the rear had no idea what was happening. They heard the neighing of cattle and horses and saw the smoke. The front army was retreating and they immediately fell into chaos and were quickly defeated.

The defeat spread very quickly, and before the famous scholars in the big tent could react, hundreds of thousands of Tang troops were defeated.

"How to do?"

Xing Yanen quickly grabbed the housing Guan and shouted, his voice becoming increasingly shrill.

"The Saint has entrusted you with an important task. Minister Fang, please tell me quickly, what should we do now?!"

Fang Guan had no military experience, so he turned to look at his staff, who were also experiencing battle for the first time and were at a loss. Only Wei Shaoyou suggested that they should send someone to ask veteran generals such as Guo Ziyi, Feng Changqing, and Pugu Huai'en.

Fang Guan was a little hesitant about this. He knew that Li Heng just didn't want to use those generals, so he appointed him, the only prime minister who could calm them down, as the commander-in-chief. If he asked them, where was the prestige of the prime minister?
Before he could hesitate for long, the situation had become increasingly out of control. "Look, the Shuofang Army is withdrawing!"

The horn sounded loudly, Fang Guan turned around and saw that the border army generals withdrew their troops without waiting for his orders.

"Get out!"

Fang Guan shouted loudly and ordered the troops to withdraw.

Seeing this, Dong Tinglan quickly picked up his zither and prepared to run after them, but everyone was crowding out of the tent, leaving him behind. He thought about it and decided not to leave. He put his zither back on the table and sat down.

After sitting for a while, listening to the shouting outside, he felt uneasy in his heart, so he simply continued to pluck the strings of the zither and played the same song "Red Cliff".

Before the song was over, someone lifted the curtain and walked in. It was Wei Shaoyou and Jia Zhi.

The two men remained silent, and sat down to listen to the zither again. At last, Wei Shaoyou clapped his hands on his knees and chanted: "Two dragons fought to determine who was the better of them all, and the ships and towers at Red Cliff were swept away. The raging fire spread across the sky and illuminated the sea of ​​clouds, and here Zhou Yu defeated Cao Cao."

~~
"The south wind knows my wishes and blows my dreams to Xizhou."

Wang Nande saw that the wind fanned the flames, so he recited a poem that was both appropriate and inappropriate for the situation, and immediately chased after it himself.

Xue Bai had already asked the cavalry on both wings to conserve their energy and wait for this moment to chase and kill. They drove the fleeing rebels away, ordered the soldiers to kneel on the side of the road and surrender, and shot and killed several generals who dared to resist.

When they chased him to the vicinity of Xianyang Bridge, they ran into Fang Guan.

"Fang Guan, where are you going?!"

Wang Nanyi shouted loudly, but Fang Guan did not stop and continued to flee. Wang Nanyi was not polite either, he drew his bow and shot an arrow, hitting Li Yi behind Fang Guan.

Li Yi was pushing Fang Guan onto the bridge when the arrow hit him in the lungs. He couldn't breathe and screamed. The soldiers around him were horrified and rushed to carry Fang Guan across the Xianyang Bridge, but they also trampled Li Yi to death.

Wang Nandai saw that Fang Guan was not shot dead, and was about to continue chasing him when he met a northwestern army coming to support him. The flag he saw was that of Pugu Huai'en.

At this moment, the sound of a gong rang out behind him.

Wang Nan was very surprised and didn't know why Xue Bai wanted him to withdraw his troops at this time.

He and Xue Bai had a tacit understanding. Although he had doubts, he still followed the order without hesitation and immediately retreated with the prisoners. When they reached Zaohe River, they saw a cavalry rushing towards them from a distance at a very fast speed.

"Array up!"

Wang Nandan was a veteran general, and he knew from a distance that the enemy was not an easy opponent, so he immediately ordered his troops to prepare for battle. However, the enemy wanted to attack him from behind, and they rushed to him in a moment. It turned out to be a Uighur cavalry of several thousand people.

The Huihe people were born in a bitter cold land, and they were skilled in riding and shooting. Moreover, one person led two to four horses, and they were extremely mobile, and could be described as "speeding like the wind and lightning, and moving back and forth like flying." Wang Nande's scout horse and Xue Bai's telescope did not see them before the battle, but they were able to rush to the battlefield quickly.

Most of these cavalrymen wore light armor, and their main weapons were bows and arrows. They "drew the bow and arrows, and relied on the bow and horse." After arriving at the battlefield, they did not charge immediately, but instead used bows and arrows to injure and kill Wang Nandai's soldiers from a distance of one arrow.

As a result, even before the battle, the soldiers were already afraid of the Uighur cavalry.

At this moment, Xue Bai personally led his troops to rescue and protect Wang Nandi from the side. At the same time, the flags on the top of the city were waving and shouting.

The Huihe cavalry was originally there to stop them from pursuing Fang Guan, so they did not want to fight and slowly retreated. However, someone in their army shouted, "The mighty Tang army is nothing but this!"

Following these words, the Uighurs whistled one after another, full of disdain.

Xue Bai stared at the big flag with a serious expression and said nothing.

In this battle, when counting the results, the Chang'an army killed more than a thousand enemies, captured 40,000 prisoners, seized 4,000 cattle and sheep, and countless food, armor, and supplies. It was an absolute great victory.

"Wan Sheng! Wan Sheng!"

The army cheered, and Xue Bai was soon busy receiving and reorganizing the prisoners. Soon, he met Wei Shaoyou, Jia Zhi, Dong Tinglan and others.

"I, the sinner, pay my respects to the king and congratulate him on this great victory."

Xue Bai needed to recruit officials from Li Heng's side, so he had to treat those who surrendered with kindness, and he personally stepped forward to help them up.

Dong Tinglan was just a zither player, but Wei Shaoyou and Jia Zhi were important officials on Li Heng's side. Xue Bai quickly learned about the situation from them, and the first thing he asked was what was going on with those Uighur cavalry.

Jia Zhi was still not very clear about this, but Wei Shaoyou knew the details of the matter. He sighed and said, "Prince Zhong promised the gold, silk, and children of Chang'an and Luoyang to the Huihe people in exchange for their great support."

Hearing this, Xue Bai's face darkened.

~~
Fang Guan fled all the way, and finally stopped the retreat after nightfall. He gathered the remaining soldiers, but only a few thousand people were left.

He had no confidence that he could continue to control those generals, so he planned to flee back to Fengxiang first to avoid further defeat. But thinking of Gao Xianzhi's experience, he hesitated and hurried to find the military supervisor Xing Yanen to discuss.

"Mr. Fang has a long-standing reputation, how could he be defeated like this in one battle?!" Xing Yanen started to complain incessantly when they met, and pointed his orchid finger at Fang Guan's face several times.

Fang Guan, as the prime minister, had to ask for help, but he could only be submissive in front of the eunuch and said, "Xue the traitor has many evil schemes, and I was not able to detect them at the moment. Please ask the envoy to save him."

Xing Ting'en originally wanted to put the blame for the defeat on Fang Guan, but then he changed his mind and thought it would be good to have a good relationship with the prime minister so that the inner and outer courts could take care of each other in the future. So he coughed twice and offered an idea.

"I understand the saint. He is soft-hearted and sentimental. My husband, you only need to take the blame and the saint will not punish you. But there is one thing. Who is responsible for this defeat?"

Fang Guan has always been a gentleman. He was unaware of all these twists and turns and remained silent.

Xing Yanen had no choice but to teach him, saying, "Sir, divide the troops into three routes, and you and Li Guangjin will lead the northern route. In this decisive battle, the armies of Yang Xiwen and Liu Qi missed the opportunity to fight and failed to attack in time, which is the root cause of the great defeat."

Fang Guan knew that Xing Yanen was protecting him, and he had no choice but to sigh and agree.

After the discussion, everyone led the remaining troops back to Fengxiang. Along the way, they could see defeated soldiers fleeing, and Fang Guan was unable to continue gathering them.

They rushed back to Fengxiang without stopping. Xing Ting'en went back to the palace first, while Fang Guan, baring his flesh and carrying a thorny stick, went to apologize to Li Heng.

"What did Fang Qing say?"

Li Heng had high hopes for Fang Guan. He was unable to react for a long time after hearing this. He then shook his body and muttered, "That was an army of 200,000. How could Fang Qing be defeated so miserably in just one battle?"

It's not that he couldn't accept the defeat, but he just couldn't imagine how he could be defeated so easily and so quickly. Even if he ordered 200,000 troops to run to Chang'an and back, it wouldn't be so fast.

"Your Majesty... is guilty of death!"

Fang Guan fell to the ground, speechless.

Li Fuguo reminded him at the right time: "Your Majesty, Xing Yanen has also returned. Your Majesty, please listen to what he has to say."

In fact, it didn't matter whether he listened or not. Li Heng was appointed commander-in-chief despite huge resistance. Now that he was defeated like this, he had to swallow his tears. He staggered two steps, stepped forward, personally helped Fang Guan up, took the thorn stick on Fang Guan's back, threw it aside, and pulled up Fang Guan's robe with his own hands.

"Fang Qing, don't blame yourself. I don't blame you."

After saying this, Li Heng felt a bitter taste in his mouth, and his head was spinning. He wished he could faint.

"I just hope you can gather up the scattered pawns, and make further progress. Make further progress."

~~
Xue Bai has been busy recruiting prisoners and consolidating the results of the battle.

He did not incorporate all 40,000 captives into the army. Many of them were men who had just been recruited by Li Heng and their fighting ability was not strong. Meanwhile, food and grass in Chang'an City were already in short supply, so he sent them to Hedong and Henan to farm or do forced labor. During this process, there was no guarantee that some of them would not escape back to Helong and Shuofang, thus spreading the benevolence of the Chang'an court for him.

There were about 13,000 elite troops. Xue Bai reorganized them with a part of the imperial guards and the surrendered soldiers from Fanyang, totaling 60,000 people, and stationed them in Chang'an.

In this situation, he actually needed a general like Li Guangbi, who was powerful and strict in military discipline, to lead such an army and quickly transform it into combat power. In addition to Li Guangbi, he, the famous King Yong, was the only one in Chang'an who could control this army, but it was difficult to control it as he wished.

Apart from anything else, at the moment he doesn't dare to send Tian Chengsi alone to lead the army into battle.

For these reasons, Xue Bai was not in a hurry to pursue the victory when the food route between Chang'an and Hedong and Henan had not been cut off. His first priority was to stabilize the situation.

But just over twenty days after the great victory over Fang Guan at Xianyang Bridge, there was an unexpected surprise.

"Report to King Yong, the enemy troops are coming to surrender!"

These were not the first group of generals to surrender. According to convention, Xue Bai asked them to take off their armor and weapons and enter the city to pay their respects.

"The sinner Yang Xiwen pays homage to the king."

"The criminal Liu Qi pays homage to the king."

Xue Bai said: "You two are generals under Fang Guan, and your official positions are not low. Why do you want to surrender?"

Yang Xiwen kowtowed and said, "Fang Guan only knows literature, not military affairs. Once the army is lost, he wants to take the blame for me and Liu Qi. Prince Zhong is not a good ruler because he doesn't know how to judge people. We are willing to surrender to Your Majesty and Prince Yong!"

He actually said what was in his heart. He didn't care which of the two princes was more orthodox. He only cared about which one was more worthy of allegiance.

Xue Bai said: "Li Heng is not only a poor judge of people, but also relies on the Huihe to embolden him before he dares to fight. His defeat is destined by heaven. It is not too late for you to abandon darkness and join the light."

"I am willing to follow the lead of Prince Yong!"

Xue Bai accepted the surrendered general and immediately asked about the situation in Fengxiang.

Before the two fled, they heard something. Li Heng had appointed Prince Guangping Li Chu as marshal and Guo Ziyi as deputy marshal to gather the scattered soldiers, reorganize and prepare to attack Chang'an in three directions again.

"Which three routes?"

"I don't know either." Yang Xiwen said, "I only know that Pugu Huai'en has led his troops north, seemingly heading towards Bingzhou and Fangzhou. This time, it seems that he used Li Mi's strategy."

Xue Bai's eyes narrowed slightly. What he was most worried about was not Li Heng's attack on Chang'an, but the cutting off of Chang'an's logistics. Now, the situation he was most worried about had occurred.

Fortunately, Li Guangbi has taken the lead. I just hope that Fang Guan’s defeat can delay Li Heng for more time.

(End of this chapter)