Tibet

In Fanyang City, 30,000 officers and soldiers of the Youzhou Army lined up neatly. Shi Siming was wearing armor and a helmet, holding a sword in his hand. His eyes were full of distrust. Although he still had doubts in his heart, he decided to accept the imperial court's invitation, surrender to the imperial court, and become the new leader of the Tang Dynasty. Fan Yang Jiedushi and Ping Lu Jiedushi continued to guard Fan Yang and Liaodong for Datang.

Things have to start from a month ago.

Shi Siming is the same age as An Lushan, and is already over fifty, but he is not as obese as An Lushan. He looks relatively young, with a straight back and good spirits.

Why did Shi Siming suddenly want to surrender?

On the one hand, it was certainly the fate of Anlu Mountain that made Shi Siming frightened. It was over just a year after he started his army. Even though Anlu Mountain had such strong soldiers and horses, his own troops were less than half of Anlu Mountain. How could he withstand it?

On the other hand, Shi Siming had already swallowed up the dividends of An Lushan's rebellion. A month ago, An Shouzhong led five thousand cavalry to escort thousands of carts of wealth to Youzhou.

This is all the wealth that An Lushan and his subordinates plundered after they raised their troops, including the wealth of Luoyang and Chang'an. An Qingxu felt that the situation was not good, so he sent all the wealth back to Youzhou first, just like the dignitaries of Chang'an who sent all their wealth in advance. Same as sending to Chengdu.

As a result, An Shouzhong was poisoned at a banquet hosted by Shi Siming, 5,000 elite cavalry were taken over by Shi Siming, and all the wealth of 5,000 carts was swallowed up by Shi Siming.

After getting all the wealth after the rebellion, Shi Siming naturally lost the motivation to rebel. He wanted to gain both fame and fortune. After Shi Siming got the benefit, he also wanted fame. He sent people to contact Li Guangbi to express his willingness to surrender to the court.

Li Guangbi immediately informed the emperor. Emperor Li Heng was overjoyed. He immediately accepted Li Guangbi's suggestion and sent Wu Cheng'en, the governor of Jizhou, as envoy to Fan Yang to accept Shi Siming's surrender. He also named Shi Siming King of Yan and Pinglu Jiedushi of Fan Yang.

However, there was no unified opinion within the Tang Dynasty on accepting Shi Siming's surrender. The officials represented by Zhengshitang firmly opposed accepting Shi Siming's surrender because Shi Siming massacred countless cities in Hebei and millions of people died under his butcher knife. Now, a demon who is so cruel and so angry with both humans and gods actually lays down his butcher knife and wants to become a Buddha. How can the officials of the imperial court accept this?

The emperor Li Heng did not care how many people Shi Siming massacred. He never cared about the lives of the common people. He only wanted to maintain his rule. As long as Shi Siming was willing to surrender, he would forget about it.

However, facing the anger of officials from both the government and the public, Li Heng had to be cautious. He finally reached a compromise with the Political Affairs Hall, pretending to accept Shi Siming's surrender, and then completely liquidating him after removing his military power.

Of course, Shi Siming also knew that he killed too harshly and how could the court forgive him, so he was also full of doubts.

He had no sincerity in surrendering. He just needed two or three years to continue to recuperate. If the imperial court could keep its promise and make him the king of Youzhou, that would be fine. If the imperial court did not keep its promise and wanted to weaken him, then he I will no longer pretend to be polite to the court.

At this time, a group of carriages entered the city under the escort of cavalry, and the court envoy arrived. Shi Siming temporarily put aside his inner doubts and hurried to greet them.

Just behind Shi Siming, a pair of poisonous snake-like eyes stared at Shi Siming's back and the court messenger's carriage. The owner of these poisonous eyes was Ashina Chengqing.

Ashina Chengqing escaped from Lantian County Yamen Road. He did not dare to see An Lushan, so he fled directly back to Youzhou and became Shi Siming's military advisor.

Of course Ashina Chengqing knew that Shi Siming's surrender to the imperial court would not bring good results, so he tried his best to persuade Shi Siming to give up surrendering to the imperial court and continue to separate Youzhou as the king. However, Shi Siming wanted to be justified after eating up all the dividends of Anlu Mountain's rebellion. He became the king of Youzhou, was canonized by the court, and gained both fame and fortune.

Ashina Chengqing knew that Shi Siming thought too simplistically and underestimated the court, so he had to make Shi Siming wake up completely.

Ashina Chengqing immediately found Shi Siming's son Shi Chaoyi and whispered a few words to him. Shi Chaoyi wanted to be the emperor, but also firmly opposed his father's surrender to the court. He nodded and said: "Don't worry, military advisor! I will make arrangements."

The imperial envoy was Wu Cheng'en, the governor of Jizhou. He was also a Sogdian native of Zhangye and was once a confidant of Shi Siming. He followed Shi Siming in the expedition to Hebei and surrendered to Li Guangbi. Because he did not do many evil deeds, he was named the governor of Jizhou by the court.

Li Guangbi recommended him as the envoy, naturally wanting to appease Shi Siming.

Shi Siming stepped forward, knelt down and saluted, "Shi Siming, deputy envoy of Fan Yang Jiedu, envoy of Youzhou soldiers and horses, and champion general, kowtows to the Holy Emperor Chengxuan!"

Wu Chengen did not dare to put on airs with his old boss, and quickly bowed to Shi Siming and saluted, "The general has dismissed his humble position. This is the emperor's decree. Please accept it, general!"

Shi Siming took the imperial edict and read it over, and was quite satisfied. The emperor named him King of Yan, General of Hussar, Kaifu Yitong Sansi, Pingzhangshi, and Secretary of the School Inspectorate. He continued to serve as Fanyang Jiedushi and Pinglujie. Degree envoy.

He raised the imperial edict high, and the soldiers of the three armies shouted, "Long live! Long live! Long live!"

Shi Siming immediately ordered a banquet to entertain Wu Chengen and his entourage.

………

At night, the banquet and drinking continued, and in another room, Ashina Chengqing was still persuading Shi Siming.

"General, please don't think too naively. How could the imperial court let us go? Look at what happened to the surrendered ministers after the city of Luoyang was destroyed. Chen Xilie, Zhang Jun, Ge Shuhan, Li Xiu and others were all publicly executed. , his family was assigned to Lingnan?

The imperial court doesn’t even spare its own people, so will it spare us? How many Han people did the general kill in Hebei? Millions of them! The imperial court is just pretending to accept the surrender of the general, and it will definitely be liquidated in the future!

Even if the general is lucky enough to die at a healthy age and avoid liquidation, what about the general’s descendants? Where are the generals and their descendants? Will the court let them go? Did the General ask him about his wishes, were they willing to surrender? "

Shi Chaoyi knelt down and cried: "Father surrendered to the imperial court, will the soldiers of the three armies return home?"

The cooperation between Ashina Chengqing and Shi Chaoyi made Shi Siming shaken. He didn't really surrender in the first place, it was just a delaying tactic, but Ashina Chengqing reminded him that he had forgotten the interests of the soldiers? Once the soldiers abandoned him, the court would not kill him as easily as killing a dog.

Shi Siming lowered his head and said nothing, thinking about how to solve this situation.

Ashina Chengqing and Shi Chaoyi looked at each other meaningfully. The time had come. Shi Chaoyi whispered: "Father, I have an idea."

After the banquet, Wu Chengen drank a little too much and was helped to the bedroom by his son. Wu Chengen's son Wu Qingyuan was also a general under An Lushan.

He helped his father sit down and poured him a glass of water. Wu Chengen drank the water in one gulp, took a long breath, and laughed: "Today is so happy. Shi Siming actually knelt down in front of me. It's a rare day!" "

Wu Qingyuan said worriedly: "My father read out Shi Siming's official titles today, but none of his generals received any titles. Everyone is uneasy and they all come to ask me what's going on?"

Seeing no one around, Wu Chengen whispered: "What do you know? This is General Li's plan to alienate people. He has made Shi Siming a high-ranking official, but the people below him are not allowed to do so. There will definitely be strong dissatisfaction. After a long time, they will Hui and Shi Siming were at odds with each other.

At that time, we roped in his generals, killed Shi Siming in one fell swoop, and robbed his money. Everyone fell into disarray, and Shi Siming was wiped out effortlessly. I, Wu Chengen, became the number one hero of the imperial court, and I am afraid that I will not have any glory. Wealth? We are from Zhangye. Isn’t this how the An Xinggui family in Zhangye got its century-old wealth? "

At this moment, two sneers suddenly came from behind the bed, and then two men in black rushed out and shouted in the yard: "Come here, Wu Chengen is rebelling!"

Wu Chengen was so frightened that he rushed to get his luggage, but it was too late. Dozens of warriors who were ambushing outside swarmed in and pushed Wu Chengen and his son to the ground.

Ashina Chengqing walked in quickly and ordered: "Search his luggage!"

The soldiers quickly found Wu Chengen's death-free ticket and Li Guangbi's secret letter from his luggage, teaching him how to kill Shi Siming, disband the Youzhou Army, and promised to recommend him as the king of Zhangye County.

At this time, Shi Siming and his son also walked in. Wu Chengen was so frightened that his face turned pale and he kowtowed desperately to beg for mercy.

Ashina Chengqing handed the letter to Shi Siming, who squinted at the letter with murderous intent in his eyes.

He stepped forward and grabbed Wu Chengen's neck, slapped him hard a dozen times, gritted his teeth and said, "I treated you father and son well, and you are going to repay me like this and betray me to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty?"

Wu Chengen cried: "It's all Li Guangbi's idea and has nothing to do with the emperor!"

"You damn bitch, can Li Guangbi give you a ticket to avoid death? Do you think I am a three-year-old child?"

Shi Siming knelt down to the south again and shouted loudly: "I have surrendered to the court with 130,000 people. How can I fail your Majesty and want to kill me? You force me to die, and I have no choice but to rebel!"

Shi Siming stood up and shouted: "Drag them both down, behead them, and sacrifice their heads to the flag!"

He said sternly again: "Bang the drum for me to gather the generals!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The gathering drums sounded, and Shi Siming formally announced in front of hundreds of generals that he would not accept the canonization of the Tang Dynasty and would inherit An Lushan's unfinished business. He ordered the Tang Dynasty envoys and their entourage to be killed, and then raised the flag again. The anti-Tang banner was raised.