Tibet

An Lushan has received the news that An Taiqing failed to defend Chang'an City and was attacked by Li Ye. Most of the army was killed. An Taiqing also unfortunately died in the rebellion.

This news made An Lushan roar like thunder, and he vowed to cut Li Ye into pieces to vent his hatred.

Of course, An Lushan would not give up Chang'an. His 200,000 troops consumed an astonishing amount of food every day. Without Chang'an's food supplement, they could not hold on for a month.

More importantly, Chang'an was the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and Chang'an was recaptured by the Tang army. When the news spread, it would definitely boost the morale of Tang soldiers and civilians everywhere, which was extremely detrimental to him. He had to take it back. How could he tolerate the destruction of Li Ye, a clown? My own plan.

After reuniting with the 200,000 troops heading south in Anding County, Jingzhou, An Lushan immediately sent his troops south and returned to Chang'an in a mighty manner.

The 200,000-strong army was about a hundred miles long, and the baggage team alone was dozens of miles long. They could not catch the civilians. They had burned, killed and looted before. They killed most of the people on Jingyuan Road and almost all the rest ran away.

Now we need civilians to carry the baggage, but we can't find anyone. We have no choice but to let 50,000 troops be responsible for transporting the baggage. The marching speed is relatively slow, which makes it five days later than Li Ye estimated. Until the eleventh day later, Anlu Only then did Shan’s army return to Guanzhong

Xiaoguan Tang Army Camp, Tang Army got the news that Yan Army was withdrawing south, and the entire military camp cheered.

They fought fiercely with the Yan army for more than a month. After repeated tug-of-war, they were exhausted. Only 18,000 people were left in the 30,000-strong army. Including Wang Sili's army in Qingzhou, the total strength was less than 40,000. Facing the opponent's 20 With an army of ten thousand, they have reached the end of their strength. If they continue to fight, they will be completely destroyed.

At this critical moment, the Yan army actually retreated. How could the soldiers of the three armies not be happy and encouraged, how could they not thank God.

At this time, the supervisor Yu Chaoen walked into the tent and suggested to the chief general Guo Ziyi: "Old general, since the Yan army is retreating, the baggage must be behind it. We might as well chase them up and destroy the enemy's baggage!"

Guo Ziyi hated this eunuch supervising the army very much. The previous defeat with the heaviest casualties was all because the scouts found that the enemy's logistics defense was empty. He felt that he was cheating. However, Yu Chaoen strongly advocated a sneak attack on the enemy's food channel and even won the Emperor's Gold Medal. He came out to suppress him, but he couldn't defeat him, so he had to adopt his sneak attack plan. As a result, he fell into the enemy's trap and the entire army of more than 6,000 troops was destroyed.

Now he's acting like a monster again. Li Guiren's defense is so tight, how could he give him a chance to sneak attack?

Guo Ziyi pondered for a while and said: "I think the enemy's retreat is strange. They have not failed. They can obviously continue to launch offensives and kill us bit by bit. Why did they retreat suddenly?"

"The reason we know is that King Lu of Xiangyang sent troops to Chang'an and captured Chang'an. An Lushan had to recall the army to retake Chang'an."

Guo Ziyi was immediately furious. Yu Chaoen didn't tell him such important news. Wasn't this going to cause trouble?

Guo Ziyi suppressed his anger and said: "As the Yan army retreats south, Li Guiren will definitely deploy heavy troops to protect him. Once we send troops to chase him, he will immediately get the news and lay out his pockets for us to get in. Supervise the army, we only have 10,000 troops left." If we continue to lose eight thousand men, we will have no soldiers to protect the emperor."

Yu Chaoen said angrily: "Our family is just making a suggestion. The commander is the veteran general. Of course, it is the veteran general who decides whether to send troops or not. It has nothing to do with our family!"

Yu Chaoen downplayed the responsibility for the fiasco of the last time he forced Guo Ziyi to send troops. Guo Ziyi was too lazy to argue with him. He immediately said: "If Li Ye captured Chang'an, then Qingzhou should also withdraw its troops. Wang Sili's army can be notified Return to Lingwu immediately, we will also return to Lingwu, and seize this opportunity to let the emperor go south."

The population of Shuofang was too small to replenish troops, and the Tubo army was eyeing them. Guo Ziyi had long suggested that the emperor go south and take the Lianyun plank road to Hanzhong, so as to avoid the extreme danger of a flanking attack by the Yan army and the Tubo army.

Although the plan is good, there is no chance to go south. Once they go south, the main force of the Yan army will immediately come out of Liupanguan to intercept and kill them. At that time, it will be all over. Now the Yan army has withdrawn from Guanzhong to attack Chang'an, and the Tubo army has blocked the road due to heavy snow. Not being able to get out of Hexi is a great opportunity for the emperor to go south. This opportunity must be seized, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous.

Guo Ziyi immediately wrote a letter and sent someone to send Lingwu to Prince Li Yu.

Prince Li Yu has returned from his mission to Uihe. Although the Uihe Khan promised to send troops to help the Tang Dynasty, how many troops will be sent? When will the troops be sent out? Where to send troops? None of the details such as compensation from the Tang Dynasty had been finalized. Huihe wanted property and women from the two capitals. How could Li Yu dare to agree? His father had no instructions, so he had to come back first. Unexpectedly, he was attacked by unknown cavalry at night on his way back. , nearly half of his two thousand bodyguards were killed and wounded, and several ministers who followed him as envoys to Uighur were unfortunately killed by the enemy.

Li Yu knew that the Huihe people were retaliating against him for not agreeing to their terms, so he had to come back full of grief and indignation.

Just a few days ago, the imperial court received an eagle letter from Li Ye from Chang'an. It was learned that Li Ye had captured Chang'an and An Lushan fled in panic. The civil and military officials in the court were immediately excited. Of course, Li Yu was also extremely excited, but he He also knew that An Lushan would never give in and would definitely retake Chang'an. He had been paying attention to the news from Guo Ziyi during this period.

At this time, a guard hurriedly walked into the inner hall and presented a letter to him, "Your Highness, this is an urgent letter just sent by General Guo."

Li Yu quickly took the letter and opened it to read carefully. He nodded and deeply agreed with Guo Ziyi's idea. If he didn't seize this opportunity, it would be really dangerous if the Yan army shot back.

"Get me a car, I want to enter the palace!"

Lingwu Palace was too small to accommodate the prince. Prince Li Yu and his family lived in a small house covering an area of ​​three acres. Although it was quite crowded, it was pretty good.

He got on the carriage and drove to Lingwu Palace under the protection of the guards.

At this time, the emperor Li Heng was discussing with several prime ministers about raising military salaries. The previous prime minister Fang Guan took over as the commander-in-chief and fought against the Yan army in Fengxiang. The result was a disastrous defeat. All the 300,000 yuan that had been raised with great difficulty became the enemy's. spoils of war.

Now that their finances are exhausted, the court cannot even provide ten thousand taels of gold, let alone military salaries for soldiers. They can't even pay officials' salaries. They originally had several thousand taels of gold, but they ended up giving it as gifts to the Uighurs. There was no splash at all.

There was silence in the meeting hall, and the five prime ministers all bowed their heads and said nothing. Emperor Li Heng glanced at everyone and became a little anxious, "My dear friends, is there nothing you can do? Li Xiangguo, you are in charge of finance, please tell me. "

Li Heng kicked the ball in front of Li Dai. Li Dai said for a long time: "Your Majesty, after much thought, I can only use land to compensate for my salary. Lingzhou has the advantage of a river, fertile land and convenient irrigation. We can take 10,000 hectares of military land." Come out and distribute it as salary to the soldiers. They can sell it or keep it as they wish."

Pei Mian shook his head, "Li Xiangguo, soldiers also have to feed their families, and the whole family needs to eat. It's winter now, can their families be hungry until next summer?"

"We can give you some food subsidies."

"Food is not good, military rations are not enough!" Right Prime Minister Wei Jiansu interrupted Li Dai.

At this time, a voice came from down the hall, "Maybe I have a solution!"

Prince Li Yu quickly walked into the meeting hall.