Prosperous Tang Dynasty

Chapter 343
The news that the anti-army was retreating steadily from all over the place made An Qingxu very flustered. It was clearly because An Lushan died suddenly, and 'Da Yan' suddenly replaced An Qingxu as the master of him, and the morale of the army was unstable.

After discussing with Yan Zhuang, An Qingxu decided to confer high officials and high salaries on all the rebel generals, hoping to stabilize the morale of the army and let the rebel generals continue to serve the 'Dayan'.

The actions of An Qingxu and Yan Zhuang have stabilized the morale of some rebels. At least the fronts of Yingchuan and Haozhou south of the Yellow River have gradually stabilized.However, the Hedong battlefield could not conceal the decline.

Both Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi are rare generals. They have very keen strategic vision and can seize all opportunities.

When Emperor Suzong ascended the throne in Lingwu, Guo Ziyi was transferred back to Lingwu with the main force of the Shuofang army, leaving only Li Guangbi and some not-so-elite second-line soldiers guarding Hedong.

After Cui Qianyou captured Tongguan and Chang'an City, under the order of An Lushan, he crossed the Yellow River northward to recapture Hedong, and Shi Siming and Cai Xide also led their subordinates to participate. There were tens of thousands of elite rebels in Hedong.

With such a powerful anti-army force, Li Guangbi's army alone was naturally invincible. They were beaten and retreated steadily, and they could only barely hold the most important city of Taiyuan.Soon, Hedong was almost captured by Cui Qianyou, Shi Siming, Cai Xide and other rebels. Li Guangbi and more than 1 Tang troops were also besieged in Taiyuan City and were in danger.

Thanks to Li Guangbi's commanding skills, more than [-] anti-army troops attacked Taiyuan for more than a month without being able to break through. Instead, there were many casualties.

Taiyuan City finally persisted until Guo Ziyi returned with the elite main force of the Shuofang Army. Cui Ganyou and Shi Siming led their troops to meet Guo Ziyi, leaving only Cai Xide to continue to besiege Taiyuan City.

Li Guangbi took advantage of the departure of Cui Qianyou and Shi Siming's troops, and when the strength of the rebels was greatly reduced, he personally led a death squad to attack overnight, smashed Cai Xide's rebels, killed tens of thousands of Cai Xide's rebels, and Cai Xide fled in embarrassment with the remaining troops.

On the other hand, Guo Ziyi's Shuofang elite repelled Cui Qianyou and Shi Siming's troops in Xinzhou, killing nearly [-] of their anti-army soldiers. After learning that Li Guangbi had defeated Cai Xide at the foot of Taiyuan City, he went south to Taiyuan to join forces with Li Guangbi.

The rebel army lost two consecutive defeats, and their strength was greatly reduced. They lost to Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi who were in the combined army, but soon Tian Chengsi, another general of the rebel army, led his troops to help, which strengthened the strength of the rebel army.

Whether it is Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi in the Tang army, or Cui Qianyou, Cai Xide, Shi Siming, and Tian Chengsi in the hands of the rebels, they are all rare generals, and neither side can do anything to the other.

For a period of time afterwards, Guo Ziyi, Li Guangbi and other Tang army elites and Cui Qianyou, Shi Siming, Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi and other anti-army elites continued to fight fiercely in Hedong.

At this time, An Lushan died suddenly, and news came that An Qingxu had ascended the throne and became the new emperor of 'Dayan'.

All of a sudden, the anti-army was in an uproar, and the morale of the army was in turmoil.

This is not over yet, Cui Qianyou, Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi, and Shi Siming are all titans in the anti-army, and no one would obey anyone in normal times. When An Lushan was still there, they could crush them to death. Any order Come down, they dare not refuse.

Because Cui Qianyou defeated Ge Shuhan and broke through Tongguan and Chang'an City, his credit was greater than that of any rebel general. An Lushan valued Cui Qianyou very much, so Cui Qianyou was actually the leader of the rebels on the Hedong battlefield.

And Shi Siming was very indifferent to Cui Qianyou, and the two had conflicts before. Shi Siming had long been deeply dissatisfied and suppressed with Cui Qianyou leading the Battle of Hedong, and Cui Qianyou bossing him around.

Hearing the news of An Lushan's death, he endured Cui Qianyou for another three days. Under Cui Qianyou's bossy orders again, Shi Siming broke out and almost drew his sword against Cui Qianyou. Finally, he left brazenly with about [-] elite rebels under his command. On the Hedong battlefield, I returned to Changshan, Hebei to recharge my batteries.

"Hahahaha, God helped Tang, the anti-army was defeated!" Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi were overjoyed when they got the news.

The death of An Lushan and the rebellion against the army led to the instability of the army and the weakening of its strength. If Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi could not seize such a good opportunity, they would not be worthy of being called famous generals.

"Kill ah-"

Immediately, under the command of Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, the elite Tang army launched a comprehensive counterattack against Cui Qianyou, Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi and other rebels in the Shangdang area.

The two sides fought fiercely for a long time, and the anti-army was defeated first. Cui Qianyou gathered the remnants and counterattacked, but lost again!
After two defeats in two battles, Cui Qianyou, Cai Xide, Tian Chengsi and other rebels suffered heavy losses. The elite main force was scattered, seven or eight out of ten were killed or injured, and they no longer had the strength to continue fighting Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi.So the three of them each took part of the remnants and escaped from Hedong.

Among them, Cai Xide fled to Yecheng, Tian Chengsi fled to Weizhou, and Cui Ganyou fled directly back to Luoyang to join An Qingxu because there were only a few hundred soldiers left in his headquarters and he had no foundation of his own in Hebei.

In the next few days, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi swept across the whole of Hedong, and restored Hedong for the second time.

After the recovery of Hedong, the morale of Tang troops from all walks of life was once again boosted.

When the news came back to Lingwu, Emperor Suzong Li Heng was so excited that he blushed and praised Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi for their meritorious service. The same dukedom.

However, Suzong Li Heng also knew that now was not the time to be complacent. Chang'an City in Guanzhong and Luoyang, the eastern capital, had not yet been recovered, and the anti-military forces were still huge.

According to the previous plan, Suzong Li Heng ordered Guo Ziyi to cross the Yellow River from Hedong, capture Shanjun and Lingbao, cut off the most direct connection between the rebels in Chang'an in Guanzhong and the rebels in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and further hit the morale of the rebels. Recover Chang'an City and lay the groundwork.

In early March, Guo Ziyi led his army across the Yellow River, captured Shanzhou overnight, and captured Lingbao the next day. He did not rest at all, and went to the city of Tongguan without stopping.

The Tongguan rebels didn't expect Guo Ziyi to kill Tongguan so quickly. The morale of the army was unstable, and he was too late to defend. Guo Ziyi's elite Tang army killed the city wall of Tongguan in the first wave of attack, and quickly occupied the city wall and opened it from the inside. The gate of Tongguan, captured Tongguan.

To say that the fall of Hedong, Shanzhou and Lingbao only caused a huge shock to the rebels, showing their decline.Then the fall of Tongguan directly caused an uproar among the rebels, and suddenly became a little sad.

Tongguan is the lifeline of Chang'an City, once it is lost, the enemy army can quickly approach Chang'an City, if Chang'an City cannot be defended, the blow to the rebels will undoubtedly be huge.

At this moment, An Qingxu could only contact the rebels in Chang'an City through Wuguan, and ordered the rebels in Chang'an City to guard Chang'an City to the death. Bao and Tongguan re-opened the most direct connection with Chang'an City.
-
(End of this chapter)