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Volume 2: Looking to Chang'an Chapter 62: Stillness in the Movement

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    Chapter 62: Stillness in the midst of movement

    When Li Zuoguo began to inspect Anxi, Li Heng, who had fled to Xiangyang, did not follow the order and returned to Bashu. Li Long, who had fled to Chengdu, basically wanted Li Heng to return to Shu to reunite, but Li Heng refused. Li Heng told the world: "Father."  The emperor was firmly in the middle of Shu, but today the world collapsed. Two thieves, Li Zuoguo in Anxi and Anlushan in Fanyang, started a rebellion. The northern land of the Tang Dynasty was lost, Guanzhong fell, Chang'an was destroyed, and the eastern capital was occupied. Heng's father, the emperor, became the prisoner of the country.  However, we have fallen into the city and lost our territory. Now we must gather the soldiers and horses from all over the world to fight to the death with the thieves, but in order to recover the lost territory of the Tang Dynasty, we dare not go to Shu to fulfill our filial piety. If we cannot win by going north, we should go north and die"

    This means that instead of going to Shuzhong now, I will recruit troops in Jingzhou to fight Li Zuoguo and An Lushan to the death, because Li Heng has gathered a group of civil and military personnel, and many patriots have also gathered around Li Heng.  The envoys also expressed their support for Li Heng's actions and responded by contributing troops, food and supplies to Xiangyang. The hope of the Tang Dynasty seemed to lie in Li Heng. Many ministers expressed disapproval of Li Longji's escape without a fight.  He said, but there was some complaint in his heart.

    Li Heng was setting a benchmark at this time, so now Li Heng had the confidence not to obey Li Longji's orders. In Xiangyang, Li Heng began to receive troops and supplies from the Central Guizhou Road, Jiangnan West Road, Huainan Road and Shannan East Road. See  With the support of so many Jiedu envoys of the Tang Dynasty, Li Heng seemed to have regained some energy and began to make ambitious preparations to recapture Chang'an and Luoyang next year.

    At the dock in the north of Xiangyang, there was a steady stream of ships coming down the river. Rows of soldiers were getting off the ships. However, their clothes looked very messy. They were not the military headquarters of the Tang Army. Many of the soldiers disembarking had no weapons at all.  They were only wearing civilian uniforms and did not look like soldiers at all. Many of them had only confusion and fear on their faces. It seemed that there was something wrong with the origin of these soldiers.

    Li Heng looked at these "elite soldiers" from Jiangnan with an extremely ugly expression. He turned to Yuchi Changgong who was standing behind him and said, "Is this the so-called fifty thousand elite soldiers from Jiangnan Province sent by Ambassador Liu Jiedu? This is completely  They are some farmers, what kind of elite soldiers are there."

    Yuchi Changgong had a wry smile on his face. A lot of soldiers had come in the past few days, and the total number had reached 80,000. The soldiers sent from Qianzhong Road and Huainan Road were not soldiers at all. They were all farmers, and only a few were under the commanding generals.  The soldiers are still qualified, but the number is pitifully small, and the remaining ones are the so-called civilian righteous men. These powerful civilians rarely have the opportunity to recommend themselves to the prince of the Tang Dynasty, so they brought the villagers and Hakka Ding to join the army.  Yuchi Changgong thought that these people were just a mob and a joke in front of Li Zuoguo's Anxi Army.

    Finally, Liu Zheng from the south of the Yangtze River sent 50,000 elite soldiers. Li Heng was worrying about the farmers in front. When he heard that Liu Zheng's 50,000 elite soldiers had arrived, he happily ran to greet him.  The quality of this soldier is like a blow to the head. He is not an elite soldier, he is just a farmer who has just put down his hoe.

    A huge warship docked on the dock. After the springboard was set up, more than thirty generals in armor came down. After asking the soldiers standing guard on the dock, they went straight to where Li Heng was.  Not far away from Li Heng, dozens of men who looked like soldiers knelt down and worshiped Li Heng, saying that soldiers from Jiangnan Province had come to serve under the prince.

    Li Heng's face was full of displeasure, and he asked with a voice in his nose: "Didn't Liu Zheng say 50,000 elite soldiers? Why do I see only farmers? What's going on?"

    The dozens of generals looked at each other in confusion. Li Heng was talking about Liu Zheng, but how could these generals under Liu Zheng answer so rashly?  A general who was in charge shortly after said: "Your Highness, these are the soldiers of Jiangnan Road. However, there has been no war in Jiangnan in the past few decades, so the armors and weapons originally prepared by the soldiers are basically gone.  The war was urgent, so after convening the meeting, Ambassador Liu Jiedu asked them to get on the ship and set off immediately, saying that the prince would deal with the armor and weapons. The general has a roster of soldiers here, and the prince can send someone to count them. There will be absolutely no mistakes. "

    Li Heng¡¯s nose was so angry that he was crooked. What does this mean?  Do you need to deal with weapons and armor yourself?  The more than 10,000 imperial troops who escaped from Chang'an still lacked weapons and armor. The Tang Dynasty had been at peace for a long time. Even if there were wars, they were in the far north and northwest. The Taoist military systems in the south were in vain. Not only were they without weapons, they might  Without even annual training, how could such soldiers be put to use?

    Li Heng also needs to be in charge of the food. Although there is a lot of food and grass sent by the three routes, the food and grass for these hundreds of thousands of people is not a small amount. Li Heng feels a headache just thinking about it. He will counterattack Chang'an next year. Next year, he can train these farmers to be able to  It would be good to walk in a straight line, but Li Heng only felt an evil fire rushing from below to the top of his head.

    Li Heng immediately turned around and left, saying: "General Yuchi, you are responsible for his affairs." The Imperial Army behind him quickly followed Li Heng, and the group returned to Xiangyang without looking back.

    More than thirty generals knelt on the ground,He raised his eyes and looked at Yuchi Changgong who was still staying in the same place. Yuchi Changgong touched his nose and said with a bitter smile: "Get up, everyone. We will gather your people and set up camp at the edge of Xiangyang City first, and then we can talk about other things after settling down.  "

    Yuchi Changgong had no choice. How could such an army fight against the Anxi Army? Even Anlushan's army was far behind. Yuchi Changgong, who had seen the power of the Anxi Army, only felt a bulging pain in his temples. Qiu Ri  The sunshine is no longer bright, it just feels extremely dazzling.

    When Yuchi Changgong and Li Heng were worried about the poor quality of the soldiers in the south, in Fangshan County of Hebei Province, Shi Siming gathered 20,000 soldiers in Fangshan in order to guard the western gateway of Hebei Province, preparing to defend Fangshan to the death and command the generals.  It was Tang Heihu, Shi Siming's general. This Tang Heihu was from the Hu people. He was a Xi man. He was known to be brave and capable of commanding troops. He was deeply loved by Shi Siming. He had an iron cavalry of four thousand Xi people in his hands, known as the Black Tiger Cavalry. He was originally in the army.  The north gate of Fanyang Road was stationed at Juyongguan. After Shi Siming's defeat, he was transferred south and became the garrison of Fangshan.

    Shi Siming has now experienced the power of the Anxi cavalry. Hebei is a flat plain, suitable for cavalry. Therefore, Shi Siming is very afraid. He has convened an alliance of seventeen large grassland tribes in Youzhou, hoping to borrow troops to resist the attack of the Anxi army.

    Tang Heihu received Shi Siming's strict order and could only defend Fangshan and could not go out to fight in the city. He was also depressed because his cavalry could not play a big role in defending the city. However, Shi Siming's defeat also made Tang Heihu know that the Anxi Army was not easy to mess with and he did not want to go out.  In the field battle with the Anxi Army, control the area around Fangfang Mountain and send more reconnaissance cavalry to guard it.

    The Anxi cavalry began to appear more than a month ago. The luxury of the Anxi cavalry made Tang Heihu jealous. The cavalry was all equipped with more than three horses, not to mention the cavalry's armor weapons, but the long-range horn crossbow made  Tang Heihu strengthened his determination to defend.

    The fighting style of the Anxi cavalry is very simple. Immediately after encountering the enemy, they will be struck by a round of crossbows, and then rush into melee combat. The powerful assault power and sophisticated weapons and armor have become a nightmare for the cavalry under Tang Heihu. They cannot fight or run.  Lose, there are also more cavalry than one's own. The scouts who went out were already drafted war horses, but even the quality of the war horses was much worse. How could they escape?

    The Anxi cavalry are all veterans who have been in battle. They are not only fearless, skilled in bow and horse, but also full of courage. A cavalry team of ten people dared to attack an enemy of fifty people, and they won more than they lost. Tang Heihu had already  Most of the cavalry and soldiers took back Fangshan, preparing to defend the city when the Anxi Army came.

    Except for the remaining counties where Tang Heihu sent a thousand soldiers to defend each other, the rest of the troops were all reduced to Fangshan. Every day, Tang Heihu, in addition to supervising the reinforcement of city walls and digging deep moats, would go back to his residence to drink. This shrinking strategy  It also greatly reduced the harvest of the Anxi Army, and it seemed that they were just waiting for winter to arrive.

    A war horse was running desperately. The cavalry on the horse was covered with blood. He looked back from time to time, his face full of fear. The helmet was gone, and the armor on his body was gone. He was only wearing close-fitting clothes.  The cavalryman was the only survivor of the reconnaissance cavalry team under Tang Heihu. He was not injured. The blood was spattered by the cavalryman from his own team. The cavalryman saw with his own eyes that the comrade in front of him was shot with an arrow in the neck.  The spurting blood poured all over him. Being clever, he did not follow his team towards the enemy, but turned around and ran away.

    Always confident in his intuition, he realized something was wrong at the beginning. Although there were more than 60 reconnaissance cavalry that had just gathered, and the Anxi cavalry that launched the attack only had more than 20 cavalry, how could it be possible that more than 20 cavalry could defeat them?  Dare to attack the cavalry of more than sixty people, his intuition temporarily saved his life, but only temporarily.

    The heavy breathing of the war horse became louder and louder. The cavalryman knew that the war horse was at its limit. The pursuit of the two cavalrymen behind him made him know that his comrades were in danger. He threw away his weapon and took off his armor. In order to reduce the risk,  The weight, but even so, the sound of galloping horse hooves was getting closer and closer. He turned his head to look behind. The moment the smart cavalry turned his head, a crossbow arrow flew towards him, hitting his left eye with strong force.  This crossbow arrow went straight into his brain. The horse was still galloping, but the lifeless cavalryman fell off his horse.

    The iron hooves of the war horse reached the body lying on the ground. A cavalryman immediately came down. He pulled out his sword and beheaded the unlucky cavalryman. The head was hung on the body of a war horse. There were seven or eight heads there.  After a new companion was added, the horse began to sway as it ran. Next to the head of the newly added cavalry was the head of their team leader. His eyes were wide open and his mouth was slightly open. He looked surprised, as if he was in shock again.  Ask why this is happening?

    Anxi soldiers have long since announced that they no longer need to cut off their heads to record merit after killing the enemy. However, among the Anxi army rangers, the enemy'sBeheading is always the best proof of bravery. Li Zuoguo has ordered not to do this, but many soldiers in the army still like to behead. This is also related to the origins of these soldiers and their commanders.

    Li Hu's army likes to behead people the most. Even captured enemies will kill them for a while before stopping after the enemy kneels down and surrenders. For this reason, Li Hu was often scolded by Li Zuoguo. Li Hu also scolded the generals below.  He can also beat with a stick, but when faced with such a situation, he still kills. Li Hu himself is a very murderous person. As the saying goes, the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, so beheading is forbidden repeatedly.

    Another troop that likes to behead is the Rangers. This cavalry, which is mostly composed of warriors from various ethnic groups, has violent qualities. The leader Asulu is a calm man, but Asulu is also a Turk after all.  In Asulu's opinion, beheading was not a big deal at all. If you killed an enemy, you must cut off the head to shock the enemy. It was also a proof of merit. Therefore, Asulu was not scolded by Li Zuoguo, but in the blink of an eye he kept beheading.

    In the end, Li Zuoguo was too lazy to care. Anyway, it was the enemy who beheaded and resisted with weapons. As long as the people were not killed indiscriminately, Li Zuoguo was willing to keep his soldiers fierce. As for the control of the army, Li Zuoguo must have his own power among the armies.  Human beings, not to mention Asulu and Li Hu are also Li Zuoguo's most trusted generals.

    Asulu's deputy is Huang Bo, who was a soldier of Li Zuoguo and was also one of Li Bai's disciples. Huang Bo stood on a small slope and watched the last two people return to the team. As the deputy general of the first army, Huang Bo had no need to participate.  This kind of action was to strangle the opponent's reconnaissance cavalry. However, after Tang Heihu reduced his troops, the harassment tactics of the rangers were a bit too little. Training at the back all day also made Huang Bo unhappy, so he personally joined the hunt with his own soldiers.  .

    Although Huang Bo only brought a dozen or so soldiers into action, the number of horses now exceeds 200, which also shows that Huang Bo's gains are not small. In a short charge, more than 60 cavalry were killed, and the ground was littered with messes.  They were all headless corpses. From the initial confrontation to the subsequent escape, the difficulty was not fighting, but hunting down the collapsed deserters. It took three times as long to hunt down the deserters as it did to defeat this unit.

    Seeing the last two people returning to the team, Huang Bo waved his hand, and hundreds of war horses began to turn westward. This time they came out and gained a lot. There were very few scouts outside, and Fangshan was just ahead. Huang Bo didn't want to  Let¡¯s move on.

    The Rangers' main camp was not located in that city but directly at the foot of Baima Mountain. More than a hundred miles south of Baima Mountain is Niangzi Pass, but now Niangzi Pass is in the hands of the Anxi Army, and the entire camp is very lively.  There were soldiers fetching water for their horses at the edge of the camp, and there were also cavalry practicing formation outside the camp.

    Huang Bo's return did not attract much attention. Tens of thousands of war horses were in a simple horse pen outside the camp. Stacks of hay were being chopped and mixed with grain. This was the concentrate specially allocated to the war horses. Huang Bo  He dismounted and saw the camp of General Asulu in front of him. Huang Bo and Asulu had been cooperating for more than a year. They went in directly without waiting for notification.

    Entering the tent, Asulu was looking at the book in front of him with a sad face. Huang Bo went straight to the copper pot containing mare's milk, lifted the entire copper pot and drank. After taking a gulp, Huang Bo  He looked at Asulu and asked, "Why are you worrying about trivial matters in the camp again?"

    Asulu threw away the things in his hands: "You came back just in time. You know that my Chinese is very poor, and there are many things in the camp. Those clerks just handed these things to me. What do you want me to do? Or you  Come on, I read this thing just like reading a heavenly book."

    Huang Bo said with a smile: "Have you forgotten what Sikong said? As a general, you must be able to speak Chinese and learn Chinese characters, otherwise you will be unqualified. This is also a training for you."

    Asulu complained: "I'd rather go into battle and fight. I'm not young at this age, and I can't learn anything. It's okay for me to be a team leader. I don't care about other things. I just go into battle and fight. That's it."  As a general, life is worse than death. The affairs of tens of thousands of people in the camp are all piled up on my side. I don¡¯t have to think about fighting. I spend all my time dealing with these messy things."

    Huang Bo said: "You need to learn these things when you are in the army now, so don't complain. You are asking for trouble. Sikong didn't ask you to take care of everything in the camp? Isn't it true that there are Sima and all levels accompanying the army?  Secretary, if you just hand over the matter, it will be over? Someone will naturally take care of it."

    Asulu said: "I used to do this too. I have to take care of Sikong's affairs, otherwise I will betray Sikong's trust? That's why I take care of it like this."

    Huang Bo laughed loudly: "You idiot, think about how many people you brought with you originally? Two thousand people. Of course, there is not much to do. How many people are there now? There are 50,000 auxiliaries in total. You have to take care of two thousand people."  You deserve to be exhausted to manage fifty thousand people. I didn¡¯t say a word when I saw you busy during this period. I just wanted you to figure it out on your own, but in the end you still cheated.The corner is sharp.  "

    Asulu suddenly realized: "Yes, it is tiring to manage two thousand people, let alone tens of thousands of people. I am really stupid. I will call the Sui Army Sima here and give these instructions. The two of us will discuss what to do."  Dafangshan.¡±

    There were two Sima accompanying the army, and there were about 20 people in the secretary's office. The things under management were very comprehensive. The things assigned by Asulu were soon in order. Asulu was overjoyed and even said that Huang Bo's attention was good.  Bo shook his head and said, "If you had paid attention to the civilian duties assigned to you by Sikong, you would have been relaxed a long time ago. Didn't you see that I didn't even help you? You still have to remind me to react. How slow are you?"

    Huang Bo and Asulu have a good relationship, so it doesn¡¯t matter if they are joking. Asulu touched the back of his head and said with a smile: "You also know that my mind is slow, and you didn¡¯t tell me earlier, which caused me pain for so long."

    Huang Bo said seriously: "What do you think of Shi Siming's army guarding Fangshan? If we shrink like this and hold the key point, our harassment will probably not have much effect. The spies reported that Shi Siming was preparing to join the leader of the grassland tribe in Youzhou.  Borrow troops to deal with us."

    Asuelu became much more calm after saying this. Asuelu had a beast-like intuition about fighting, otherwise he would not have been promoted to the position of the general of the army. Asuelu said: "There is no need to be afraid of alliances or anything like that. Grassland  The tribe's combat power is just like that. Shi Siming's plan is to let the tribe's cavalry come to deal with us in winter and contain us. He can free up his hands to prepare for our offensive next year. Now is the best time for the grassland tribe to send troops. Our side is so strong.  With the cavalry strength, we are just going to die when we come. As for the harassment that Sikong told us, we can ignore the troops huddled in Fangshan and directly divide the cavalry into teams of a thousand people, bypassing Fangshan and directly enter Hebei. I don¡¯t believe that all cities are like Fangshan.  The troops are sufficient and the city defense is strong, and even if Shi Siming dispatches 5,000 cavalry troops, they may not be able to defeat them."

    Huang Bo asked: "What if Shi Siming sent out 10,000 people to encircle and suppress it?"

    Asulu said: "Don't be afraid. Our thousand-man cavalry team keeps a not too far distance. When Shi Siming sends out his army, we will gather together to fight him. It will not be a problem to defeat him again. We are much more mobile than Shi Siming."  "

    Huang Bo nodded: "It's a good idea, but how to solve the logistics of the cavalry's baggage?"

    Asulu narrowed his eyes: "It's very simple, just feed Hebei. The villages will be captured to collect food on the spot. This will accomplish the task of harassing Hebei. It is not under our Anxi rule, so we can only count them as unlucky."

    Huang Bo lowered his head and considered it for a moment, then said: "Okay, I agree with your idea, but I can't kill the people. At the same time, I will share the land and food in the west. See if Shi Siming can bear it?"

    The two looked at each other and laughed.
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