Tibet

Hundreds of cavalrymen ran across several miles of grassland, with woods ahead of them. Suddenly, a horn sounded in the woods, "Woo--" A cavalryman came towards them.

The leader of the cavalry general is a white horse with a silver spear. He has a face like a crown of jade and a heroic figure. He holds a plum blossom silver spear in his hand. He is Nan Jiyun, a fierce general in the Jianghan and Tang army whose martial arts is second only to King Li Ye of Lu.

He was followed by three thousand cavalry. Nan Jiyun had long expected that An Shouli would flee into the woods, so he had been waiting for him here!

Without saying a word, Nan Jiyun swung his spear and stabbed at An Shouli's front door. The speed was unparalleled. Six spearheads appeared in an instant. An Shouli was shocked. He immediately hurriedly took the move and stabbed one of them with his broadsword. A spear tip was used to chop away, but unexpectedly, the knife struck an empty hole.

An Shouli screamed inwardly, and the real gun tip reached his throat in the blink of an eye. He instinctively turned his head to the side, a little slower, "Pfft!" The gun tip pierced the left side of his throat, cutting off his carotid artery. The blood vessels were punctured and blood spurted out.

An Shouli yelled, turned over and fell off his horse, and was stabbed through the throat by Nan Jiyun in the air. When he landed on the ground, he was already a corpse.

Nan Jiyun glanced at Yan Hanhai at the back. He was the key figure.

Yan Hanhai saw with his own eyes that An Shouli was killed by a single move. He was so frightened that he turned his horse and fled. At this time, an arrow "whooshed!" ’ The ground shot hit the horse’s hind legs. The horse suddenly knelt down and threw Yan Hanhai off the horse.

Before Yan Hanhai could get up, he was firmly held down by two Tang Army soldiers. Nan Jiyun said calmly behind him: "Yan Hanhai, my Highness has been waiting for you in Shangluo County for a long time."

Yan Hanhai lamented in his heart and his head hung down feebly.

In the Daming Palace in Chang'an, a guard rushed towards the inner palace, shouting as he ran: "Emergency military situation!"

It was noon. An Lushan had just finished lunch and was lying on the bed taking a nap. At this time, the eunuch who was close to him pushed him awake. An Lushan was furious and slapped Li Li with a palm as big as a cattail fan. Zhu'er swatted him away more than ten feet away. He was so frightened that he fell to the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, "There is an emergency military situation outside, so I have the guts to push His Majesty awake!"

At this time, An Lushan also faintly heard the emergency military situation shouted outside, and he said angrily: "You idiot, why don't you help me sit up."

Li Zhuer quickly climbed up on the bed and got into the pile of meat on Anlu Mountain. He gritted his teeth and used his head with all his strength to sit up on top of Anlu Mountain little by little. Five strong palace ladies hurriedly stepped forward. , sat down with his back to An Lushan, forming a fleshy support group to support An Lushan's body.

After a moment, the reporting guard came in and knelt down on one knee, "Your Majesty, urgent military information!"

"explain!"

"Your Majesty, there is news from Shangzhou that Li Ye has led an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people and entered Shangzhou and is advancing towards Lantian Pass."

An Lushan's eyes widened in shock, and he immediately shouted: "Summon Gao Xiangguo to see me quickly!"

Yesterday Gao Shang reminded him to be careful of any unusual movements in the direction of Jingxiang, but he didn't expect it to come today.

An Lushan was really panicking. He only had 80,000 troops in Chang'an, which was not a large army. Should he quickly withdraw the 200,000 troops who were attacking Lingwu?

At this time, Prime Minister Gao Shang hurried over, entered the room and bowed: "My dear minister, Gao Shang, pays homage to Your Majesty!"

"Gao Xiangguo, you are indeed right. Li Ye's army has entered Shangzhou and is almost at Lantian Pass. I heard that there are 50,000 to 60,000 troops."

Gao Shang nodded, "This is obviously to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao. Li Ye attacked Chang'an and forced us to withdraw from Qingzhou and Yuanzhou!"

"So how do we respond?"

"Your Majesty, don't worry. If the opponent only has 50,000 or 60,000 people, maybe they are just showing off. If you want to attack Chang'an, you will need at least 100,000 troops."

"Not necessarily! We only have 80,000 troops. Even if I send 50,000 troops to fight, if they lose, they will definitely be able to capture Chang'an."

"Your Majesty, the army in Li Ye's hands that is good at fighting is the 20,000 Hezhong Army. The other armies were recruited in Jingxiang and have not experienced much war training. We sent 50,000 elite troops. Wei Chen believes that our 50,000 Youzhou Army The possibility of defeating Li Ye is very high."

An Lushan thought for a moment and said, "How about we bring back the 200,000 troops at the same time? After we have completely wiped out Li Ye's army, we can fight back again."

Gao Shang thought for a moment and said, "That's okay!"

An Lushan breathed a sigh of relief. With twenty troops at the base, he felt more at ease.

"Prime Minister, why don't we hold on to Chang'an and wait for the arrival of the 200,000 troops!"

Gao Shang pondered for a moment and said: "Li Ye's army broke through Wuguan so easily, which shows that they are unique in siege. If he breaks through Chang'an and comes in, firstly, His Majesty will be in danger, and secondly, the impact will be too great, which will be serious It affects the reputation of His Majesty and the Youzhou Army. Street fighting breaks out between the two sides, and the entire Chang'an Society is in catastrophe. We have not trained for street fighting, and we may fail."

"Okay! I understand, then I will send 50,000 elite soldiers to fight, and also let the prince violently attack Xiangyang. If he dares to surround Wei and rescue Zhao, I will do the same!"

"Who does Your Majesty think is more suitable as the commander-in-chief?"

"I order Taiwei Ashina Chengqing to be the commander-in-chief, and Sun Xiaozhe and Xiang Gao Xiuyan to be the deputy generals. Sun Xiaozhe will lead my eight thousand Kelan cavalry to defeat Li Ye's army in one battle."

Anlu Mountain has two elite cavalry, one is the 8,000 Yiluohe heavy armored cavalry commanded by Li Guiren, which can be called the elite among the elite. This cavalry is the guard of Anlu Mountain. Will fight.

Another cavalry is the Kelan Cavalry. This is a cavalry formed after obtaining 20,000 horses from Loufanjian in Hedong. Although it is inferior to the Yiluohe Cavalry, it is also an elite cavalry. It has just been withdrawn from Gyeongju to rest. General Sun Xiaozhe is in command.

In fact, Anlu Mountain also has a heavy armored Mo Dao Army of 3,000 people, which is present in every frontier Jiedu Prefecture. It is just that the Mo Dao Army in Anxi Jiedu Prefecture is the most famous, but Anlu Mountain’s Youzhou heavy armored infantry is currently in Luoyang. , not in Chang'an.

An Lushan knew very well that Lantian Pass was only a commercial pass, a pass for merchants, not a military pass, so Lantian Pass could not be defended. He ordered Ashina Chengqing to lead his army to fight immediately.

At the same time, An Lushan ordered An Qingxu to immediately lead an army of 100,000 to attack Jingxiang, so that Li Ye could also experience the feeling of being attacked in his hometown, and he also surrounded Wei and rescued Zhao to force him back.

Lantian Pass is a commercial pass. It mainly collects taxes from caravans coming from Shangluo Road, or checks tax bills from caravans leaving the pass to Shangluo Road.

Guancheng is small, with only about a hundred defenders. It can be said that all the defenders can be wiped out with just one crossbow firing.

It was precisely for this reason that when he heard that Li Ye's army was coming, the defenders retreated without a fight, allowing Li Ye to occupy Lantian Pass without bloodshed.

This time Li Ye led a 60,000-strong army to march north, but only 50,000 troops actually fought, and the other 10,000 were auxiliary troops, such as occupying Shangzhou, escorting prisoners of war back, taking care of 30,000 camels, providing logistical support, etc.

Although there are only 50,000 troops, they are Li Ye's main force, including his Hezhong Army and 30,000 elite Jingxiang Army.

Of course, Li Ye knew that Chang'an's army numbered about 80,000, and he also guessed that An Lushan would send 50,000 troops to fight against him. So defeating this army of similar strength would be the biggest test for the commander and the soldiers.

Li Ye's army was stationed at Lantian Pass and was not in a hurry to attack Chang'an. He was also patiently waiting for the enemy's arrival.