Tibet

Cui Qianyou's failure to cross the river made An Qingxu aware of the huge risks for the westward army. They would face attacks from the Tang army's water ghosts and might be wiped out. An Qingxu immediately stopped the westward crossing and ordered the army to withdraw to the camp.

An Qingxu was unable to cross the river for a while. He stood on a high place and looked at the river, sighing to Yan Zhuang: "Prime Minister Yan, is there really no way to defeat Jingxiang?"

Yan Zhuang pondered for a moment and said: "The fundamental reason why we can't cross the river is not the people. We have no chance to fight against the Tang army. The problem lies in the tools for crossing the river. I heard from General Cui that the Tang army's warships were sailing in the fire on the water. It is not affected, but rafts will not work. Both water ghosts and fire have a great impact on rafts. Therefore, if you want to cross the Han River, you can only use a large number of boats. I suggest you collect boats from the Central Plains and then cross Transport it to Dengzhou or Suizhou in various ways."

An Qingxu thought for a while and said, "Can I cross the river in Fangzhou and then the army comes to Xiangzhou?"

Yan Zhuang shook his head, "Going to Fangzhou to cross the river is not as good as going to Suizhou to cross the river. Your Highness has not grasped the essence of the problem. We must control the Han River so that our logistics supplies can keep up. If we cross secretly Jiang, people are here, what about the logistics and food supplies? A few warships of the Tang Army can cut off our logistics supplies, and the 100,000-strong army will soon collapse."

An Qingxu nodded, "Xiang Guo is right. If the ship can't keep up, we can't cross the Han River. So should we wait here for the ship to arrive, or should we withdraw our troops and return to Luoyang first?"

Yan Zhuang smiled and said: "I suggest you withdraw your troops first, and it won't be too late to attack again when you are fully prepared!"

An Qingxu hesitated and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to explain it to the emperor!"

"Tell the truth. The emperor was born in the army. He knows the shortcomings of the raft. And I heard that Yong Wang Li Lin supported his own troops in the south and did not recognize the emperor. He has hundreds of thousands of troops. He will definitely expand to Jingxiang. If If he can destroy Li Ye or seriously weaken Li Ye, we will be sure of attacking Jingxiang next time."

An Qingxu never thought about the problem of Yongwang Li Lin. He smiled happily and said: "This is the same as Tongguan. The internal struggle of the Tang army often gives us opportunities. I look forward to the struggle between Li Ye and Li Lin."

Three days later, the Yan army slowly withdrew northward. An Qingxu appointed Tian Chengsi as the Nanyang Jiedushi, leading an army of 20,000 to guard Dengzhou and Tangzhou. He led an army of 80,000 to return to Luoyang.

Just two days after the Yan army retreated from the north bank of the Han River, the scout Colonel Zhang Dian received news from the other side that the enemy troops had retreated.

Li Ye immediately ordered Ying Yanglang, General Peng Wei, to lead three thousand troops north to inquire about the Yan army's situation in Dengzhou, especially Rang County, which was the north gate of Xiangyang and related to the safety of Shangluo Road. Li Ye estimated that Nanyang had been captured. The Yan army occupied it, but he hoped to recapture Rang County.

Soon, Peng MoNian sent someone to report that there were enemy troops guarding Rang County, with about 3,000 people, but the main force of the enemy army was in Nanyang County, with more than 10,000 people. The commander-in-chief was Tian Chengsi, who was appointed as the governor of Nanyang and took control. Deng and Tang states.

Of course Li Ye wanted to take back Dengzhou and Tangzhou. This was his territory, how could he give it to the Yan army.

Five days after the Yan army withdrew, Li Ye led an army of 50,000 across the Han River and used ships to carry a large number of siege weapons to attack Rangcheng in a mighty manner.

The lord general of Rang City was called Duan Baihu, a native of Youzhou and half Hu. He was frightened when tens of thousands of Tang troops came to kill him. He also knew that his 3,000 soldiers could not defend Rang County, so he simply gave up Rang County and headed towards Nanyang. Evacuate.

Li Ye immediately took back Rang County. Rang County is the seat of Dengzhou's capital. It originally had a population of about 200,000. Like Nanyang, most of the people evacuated to Xiangyang, leaving less than 10,000 people in the city, all of them old and weak. , although there was no massacre of the city, the three thousand Yan troops were stationed in the city for several days. The soldiers exploited and tortured people for wealth. Many people were tortured to death. Adding in the people who died of illness, there were only two or three thousand people left in the city.

When Li Ye's army arrived, they were not in a hurry to go to Nanyang to fight. Instead, they ordered the entire army to harvest late rice. If it was not harvested, the rice would rot in the ground. A large number of people followed the Tang army back home and went all out to harvest rice.

When more and more people rushed back to harvest the late rice, Li Ye concentrated his troops and continued northward.

On October 20, the 50,000-strong army led by Li Ye and a fleet of grain and grass supplies arrived in Nanyang.

It was Tian Chengsi's previous order to let the Yan army retreat in Rang County. If they can't hold it, they should withdraw. Preserving the army is the most important thing. Three thousand people withdrew to Nanyang, increasing Nanyang's strength to fifteen thousand people, who could compete with the Tang army. More importantly, An Qingxu left twenty medium-sized trebuchets and eighty Juntian thunders to Nanyang, and Nanyang City was extremely rich in food and supplies. All the food and grass supplies for the 100,000-strong army were left in Nanyang. Although Tian Chengsi He did not write a military order, but he also promised An Qingxu to defend Nanyang.

Li Ye was quite familiar with Tian Chengsi. Historically, this person was the military envoy of Wei Bo in three towns in Hebei, and he could become a separatist force. Tian Chengsi also had abilities that ordinary people did not have. He was mainly good at seizing opportunities and taking advantage of the trend. .

Judging from his historical actions, this person should be a very slippery person. For example, he ordered the Rangxian army to retreat in time, which was smart. However, he knew that he could not withstand the situation and insisted on resisting, which was stupid.

Li Ye immediately ordered the army to set up a camp three miles south of the city and surrounded the camp fence.

On the top of the city, Tian Chengsi watched the huge trebuchets rumbling into the Tang army's camp in the distance. His eyes were full of worry. He did not expect that the Tang army's counterattack would be so fast. It took only ten days for the main force of the Yan army to withdraw, and the Tang army The troops came to the city.

Tian Chengsi was not afraid of the Tang Army's large trebuchets. He was afraid of the Tang Army's kerosene. I really don't know where they got the kerosene weapons. They could burn on the water. If the Tang Army used trebuchets to throw kerosene weapons, Can our own army hold on?

"General, this is strange! Why did the Tang army only attack the south of the city?"

General Duan Baihu looked puzzled and said: "They clearly have an army of fifty thousand, and they can completely surround Nanyang."

"Maybe they wanted me to evacuate! They gave me the chance to evacuate." Tian Chengsi said calmly.

"How is it possible? The Tang army has always killed everyone. How could it give us a chance to evacuate?"

Tian Chengsi shook his head, "I don't know the reason, but it is true. We can evacuate from the east or north of the city."

Another general, Zhang Hao, said: "General, I think it is because the Tang army did not want to attack the city and did not want to lose too much."

Duan Baihu pondered for a moment and said, "I think they have set up an ambush halfway and will intercept us when we actually retreat."

The generals on the top of the city started arguing. Some said they wanted the Yan army to evacuate, while others said there was an ambush and the evacuation was a trap. Everyone argued endlessly and couldn't agree on one.

Tian Chengsi was upset for a while, turned around and went down to the city.

As night fell, the war drums of the Tang Army's camp rumbled, the camp door opened, and countless Tang troops slowly drove out of the camp one by one with heavy trebuchets pulled by twenty oxen.