Chapter 381: A soldier who defeats others without fighting

In December of the first year of Zhide, Li Qing sent generals Li Siye and Bai Yuanguang to lead 100,000 troops to attack Weizhou. At the same time, Li Guangbi also sent his generals Ge Shu Yao and Ma Lin to lead 30,000 troops to assist in the attack. It took only two days for Li Siye's army to capture Weizhou. The rebel Xue Song was captured alive, and his 30,000 rebels were wiped out.

Li Qing then ordered Xue Song to behead him in the street market of Weizhou, and the army returned to Xiangzhou. In mid-December, Li Guangbi's 80,000 troops and Li Qing's 300,000 troops officially began to siege Xiangzhou. Until five days later, Li Qing never issued an order to start attacking.

The nearly 100,000 troops of the Lianghuai forces were like a big cake he swallowed in one mouthful, which needed time to slowly digest. He did not kill Tian Shengong and others, but instead exchanged their lives for the cooperation of their troops and horses.

Li Qing first started with Tian Shengong's army. All senior officers were transferred to the main office by promotion or transferring to local officials, and then dispersed their troops and organization, extracted strong men to supplement the Anxi army, and the old and weak men were dismissed, and then Li Huan's army was dismissed, followed by Xu Shuji, who were arranged one by one. In just a few days, the forces of the two Huai Rivers disappeared. As for some remaining troops in the local area, they were entrusted to Lu Jing and Xi Yuanqing.

Early that morning, a team of about 500 cavalrymen walked around Xiangzhou City and rushed towards the southern camp of the Tang army. The speeding knights were all wearing armor, shining silver light, and moving rapidly and spectacularly.

The person in charge was a soldier about fifty years old. He had a grim expression and sharp eyes. He was Li Guangbi, a general from Hebei. He went to Li Qing's camp. He was a general who led the army outside to visit the right prime minister of the Tang Dynasty and the great marshal of the world.

Of course, discussing military information is also an important purpose. Li Guangbi thought that Xiangzhou was tall and had a lot of food reserves, and siege was not the best way. Now the Tang army's troops are far greater than the other side. The attack and quick battle and decisiveness are the effective solution.

The horse was moving fast, but Li Guangbi felt a little heavy. He had already received news that Li Qing had marched eastward, first confiscated Changsun Quanxu and other 100,000 Hedong Army in Lingbao, and then designed to place Tian Shengong and other two Huai Army under him in Heyang. Now, except for his more than 300,000 troops of Li Qing, there are only 80,000 troops left in the Tang army in various places. Li Qing's next target must be himself, but how will he place himself? Will he be willing to let him go once? With doubts and confusion, Li Guangbi decided to visit Li Qing himself.

He came to Nandaying, but the soldiers told him that the general was in Xidaying. Li Guangbi led his men to Xiying again. When he reached the gate of the camp, Li Guangbi ordered someone to report. After a while, Li Qing came to the gate to greet him. Li Guangbi turned over and dismounted, took a few steps and knelt down on one knee, saluted and said, "Li Guangbi, the governor of Fanyang, met with the Grand Marshal!"

Li Qing hurriedly helped him up and laughed: "Brother Guangbi swept across Hedong and Hebei to make unparalleled contributions to my Tang Dynasty. It should be my salute to you."

Li Guangbi also smiled and said, "The Prime Minister blocked Cui Qianyou and tried to save the tide of the Tang Dynasty. How could I compare to me? General Wang Zhongsi once told me that the right prime minister would become the pillar of the Tang Dynasty. Now it seems that General Wang has a keen eye to recognize people."

"Okay, let's not praise each other. If we continue, the sky will fall." After Li Qing said that, he looked at Li Guangbi, and both of them laughed.

Amid the laughter, Li Guangbi's mood relaxed slightly. He saw a kind of sincerity in Li Qing's eyes, and then ordered five hundred troops to wait outside, and he and Li Qing walked into the camp.

There were not many soldiers in the camp, most of them were craftsmen, and they were busy unsteadily, with huge machinery such as ladders and siege rams everywhere.

When passing through an open space, Li Guangbi suddenly saw a huge stone throwing machine, more than five feet high, and dozens of craftsmen were conducting final inspections and debugging. He himself used a large stone throwing machine in his battle with Shi Siming, which was as high as three feet high. At that time, it required two hundred people to move, but it was one size smaller than the current one.

Seeing that there was a strong interest in his eyes, Li Qing smiled and patted his shoulder and took him to the stone thrower. "I heard that Guangbi used a stone thrower in Taiyuan and killed tens of thousands of enemies. Let's see how my stone thrower is?"

Li Guangbi looked around and frowned and said, "This kind of giant stone throwing machine is good for defending the city. The enemy with dense attacks is extremely lethal, but it is used for siege... I am for forgiveness. The city walls of Xiangzhou are tall and strong, and may be difficult to shake. However, when attacking the city from the city, most of the people who are killed are the people in the residential area. If you use a thunderbolt chariot to attack the city gate, the effect may be better."

"Guangbi only knows one thing, not the other, come! Come and see what this is?" Li Qing led Li Guangbi into a lonely stone house. The house was filled with dustpans, which contained black powder. There were also a row of huge red projectiles on the corner of the house, each of which was the size of a millstone. More than a dozen craftsmen were busy in the stone house. One of the old men was carefully adding black powder to a thin bamboo tube with a scale.

"Is this the gunpowder used by the Prime Minister? I also used this thing when attacking Youzhou. In addition to the sound, the air wave is louder, the lethality is not strong, and it is also extremely difficult to control. If you negligently hurt your own people, you might as well use a huge rock directly."

Li Guangbi walked to the old man and grabbed a handful of dustpan beside him. It slid down from his fingers like sesame seeds. Almost every piece of gunpowder was the same size, round, completely different from the coarse gunpowder he used.

Li Qing smiled and introduced to him: "This is a fine selection, with very small amounts, mainly used to make twisters to control the combustion time!"

"Twisting?" Li Guangbi nodded and said, "This is indeed the most difficult place to control. It either explodes in advance, or it will be extinguished after being thrown into the enemy, or it will be burned for a long time, and it will be cut off by the enemy, so I won't use it in the end."

As he said that, he flicked the black projectile with his fingers, and a buzzing sound inside. It was actually made of ceramics, and it seemed to be a double-layer structure inside. Li Guangbi looked at Li Qing with doubt, meaning, "Is this okay?"

Li Qing only smiled but said nothing. At this time, a burst of cheers came from outside, and a soldier ran quickly to report: "General, the stone thrower has been debugged successfully!"

"Guangbi came just right today. I'll go and test the shot with me. I'll definitely scare you!" Li Qing's eyes were filled with mysterious smiles, and he pulled Li Guangbi and strode outward.

The northwest wind was shining, and the stone thrower with a huge black curtain was rumbling out of the camp gate, just in the upper wind direction. The north wind blew strongly and sand and dust filled the sky. The stone thrower slowly pushed towards Xiangzhou City. The dust covered it. From a distance, it seemed like a giant beast from the prehistoric world, with nearly a thousand Tang soldiers following it and concealed it.

Li Guangbi and Li Qing followed behind, and his eyes swept at a flatbed cart from time to time, containing four huge projectiles, and thick and long twists were like braids.

The stone thrower stopped until two thousand steps away from the city wall. Opposite was a long wall, which was still far from the city gate. The soldiers on the city had discovered the situation, but because there were not many Tang troops coming, there was no major commotion in the enemy. Most of them gathered at the top of the city and looked down in surprise, and no one dared to leave the city easily.

Li Guangbi did not speak, but stared at the soldiers tightly. He saw that the soldiers cut off the rope pulling the curtain cloth almost at the same time. The huge curtain cloth floated towards Xiangzhou City like a kite, revealing the hideous face of the stone thrower. A scream suddenly came from the city. Perhaps they had never seen such a big guy before, and a fire-carrying crossbow began to shoot at this side. Unfortunately, the range was not enough, and it was against the wind. He only shot halfway and fell to the ground.

Li Qing nodded slightly to the commander general who led the army and signaled that he could start. The commander general roared a few times. Nearly five hundred soldiers were pulling several huge wheels, and the thick steel ropes slowly began to straighten, and then made a harsh sound of "squeak!", and the towering stone pole was bent down his waist with difficulty.

Three soldiers carried a red projectile and put it into the stone pocket. Another soldier lit the twist, which began to burn at a constant speed. When it reached a scale, the ignited soldier shouted, "Let it go!"

"Swoosh!" The red projectile rose into the air, drew an extremely beautiful arc and flew towards the city. At this time, no matter the city, all the soldiers were looking up at it. They saw it crossing the city wall and exploded in the air with a "bang". What they shot was not the iron sheets that were killed or poisoned, but millions of colorful paper sheets, spreading in the air, a gust of wind blew, spreading over Xiangzhou.

Then the remaining three projectiles were also launched, one of which exploded in the middle, and the paper was swept by the wind and fell in scattered. Li Guangbi reached out and grabbed one of the red paper pieces, and saw a line of words printed on it: "The soldiers who surrendered first will give you twenty acres of land, but after the defeat, there will be no reward for surrendering."

He grabbed another piece of blue paper and saw another sentence printed on it: "The surrendered officers shall be placed according to their original positions before the rebellion, and those who offer the city or kill Anqingxu will be rewarded with tens of thousands of yuan, and those who are granted the title of Duke, and those who are actually granted a thousand households."

Looking at other colors of paper, they are all kinds of temptations or the situation is over, and there are even cases of the original surrendered rebels being rewarded, all kinds of methods are used to the extreme.

Li Guangbi shook his head and sighed and said, "The Prime Minister actually came up with this method. It can be said that the 'a defeated the enemy's army before the battle, and the city before the attack was defeated'. I just said that the Prime Minister's stone throwing machine was not good. It seems that I am short-sighted."

"Go back to the camp!" Li Qing waved his hand, and the soldiers quickly packed up. The huge stone thrower began to rumble to evacuate to the camp. Li Qing stared at the busy soldiers in the city, and a confident smile flashed in his eyes, as if he was talking to Li Guangbi, or as if he was talking to himself. He only heard him murmuring: "If there is no more than three days, there will inevitably be chaos in Xiangzhou City."

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Xiangzhou is Ye County of the Three Kingdoms. Now Anyang, Henan, is also the key to Hebei. After An Lushan failed to attack Guanzhong, he was afraid that Li Guangbi would take Xiangzhou and cut off his ties with Youzhou, so he sent generals Tian Chengsi and Zhang Zhongzhi to lead 40,000 elite troops to station in Xiangzhou.

Later, An Lushan was killed by An Qingxu, and then defeated Luoyang. An Qingxu fled back to Xiangzhou under the desperate escort of the 20,000 Tiger Guards, but before that, he and Tian Chengsi had turned against him because of An Lushan's death.

An Qingxu was in a disadvantageous position of weak trunks and strong branches. At first, he had to endure it. But soon, he gave his beloved concubine to Tian Chengsi's deputy general Zhang Zhongzhi, and successfully formed an alliance with him. He pulled away nearly 20,000 troops from Zhang Zhongzhi. He also took advantage of Tian Chengsi's arrival in Weizhou to urge grain, and ordered the generals of the Tiger Guard Gao Hui and Li Riyue to disturb trouble and killed Tian Chengsi's generals Linghu Chao and Zhang Xiancheng for the crime of not adhering to military discipline. Zhang Zhongzhi immediately came forward to mediate, but took the opportunity to bring thousands of troops under the second generals into his pocket.

Gradually, Tian Chengsi was forced to the corner by An Qingxu. Just as he was about to go to Shandong to seek development, the Tang army began to attack Weizhou and cut off his way. Then nearly 300,000 Tang army surrounded Xiangzhou.

The war was approaching, An Qingxu learned from Cai Xide of Luoyang and took the initiative to make peace with Tian Chengsi. He beat Gao Hui and Li Riyue and ordered them to apologize to Tian Chengsi. The internal disrepair in Xiangzhou was barely calmed down.

The wall where Li Qing distributed the flyers today was Tian Chengsi's confidant general An Taiqing, responsible for the defense. The overwhelming leaflets made him uneasy. He urgently ordered the flyers to be collected, but his soldiers hid their own private parts, leaving three and handing over one. Until the afternoon, only thousands of orders were collected, and the rest had been quietly spread in Xiangzhou City.

An Taiqing usually lives in a military camp, but he raised a concubine in a small house near the west gate. It turned out that he was the daughter of the governor of Xiangzhou. After An Lushan occupied Xiangzhou, the governor was killed and his daughter was sold to a brothel. By chance, she received An Taiqing. An Taiqing, who had been fighting for half a lifetime, liked her ladylike temperament, so she took her as a concubine, placed her in a side house, and bought two more maids to serve her.

This woman was also grateful for her kindness, so she gave up on An Taiqing, which made An Taiqing spend the night almost every night. Today, An Taiqing was depressed, so she hurried to the side house after changing her defense.

When I got home, I saw that the room was clean and tidy. A pot of fire was burning vigorously, making the room particularly warm and exuded a faint fragrance. A bed of arhat was already filled with his favorite wine and dishes. An Taiqing's nervous mood began to slowly relax.

"The general seems to be in a bad mood today?" the woman asked gently while taking off her outer clothes.

"Who is in a good mood when the Tang army besieged the city?" As he said that, An Taiqing sighed habitually. An Qingxu was rude and mean, and short-sighted, and had already lost his mind. Why didn't he understand?

But Tian Chengsi was kind to him, and he couldn't bear to give it up. He gently pinched the woman's white porcelain face and smiled and said, "Go to eat! I'm hungry."

"The wine has been poured, General, let's go first! I'll pack these clothes and come." The woman brought a bunch of clothes to the couch and folded them carefully. She had a vicious habit and would not allow the room to be messed up.

Suddenly, she saw a few red and green paper pieces on the ground, frowned and thought for a moment. It should have fallen when she took off the man's outer clothes, so she walked over and picked them up. She saw that the words were printed on it. She looked at a few pictures curiously, and her face gradually became solemn. Suddenly, her chest felt a little bored, and she suddenly covered her mouth and rushed to the back of the screen, and started vomiting.

An Taiqing drank a glass of wine, picked up a few chopsticks, and began to think about the daytime matters. Not to mention that the Tang army was the priority, even the containers used to hold leaflets shocked him. He knew that it was Li Qing's killer weapon - gunpowder. He heard that Cui Ganyou died on this gunpowder, and later Tian Chengsi was also preparing to use gunpowder, but after experimenting several times, he felt that the effect was not good. In addition, the gunpowder was limited by the Tang court, and the number was too small, so Tian Chengsi gave up.

But although the gunpowder used by Li Qing today is similar, the explosion time is controlled quite accurately. All three pottery jars exploded on the city wall, which frightened An Taiqing. If the Tang army launched a large-scale attack on the city and combined with this weapon, how long can Xiangzhou City be defended?

‘If you sacrifice the city or kill An Qingxu, you will reward ten thousand yuan for the Duke of the Kingdom, and you will actually be granted a thousand households.’ His thoughts unknowingly turned to the leaflet. If it is false to say that he is not moved, it is false, but he dare not and does not have the ability to betray Tian Chengsi, but the three words "Quan Gong" scratch his heart like a cat's claw, making him restless.

The wine glass in front of him was empty. It was usually a woman who came to pour wine for him, but why didn't she come here for a while? An Taiqing frowned and leaned into the room. Suddenly, he seemed to hear the woman moaning, and he couldn't help but jump off the bed and strode towards the inner room.

I saw her sitting on the ground, her head buried in her knees, her shoulders shaking, as if she was crying. An Taiqing glanced at her eyes and saw that she was holding the stack of flyers in her hand, her heart suddenly became angry. She stepped forward and pinched her arm and pulled her up, took the flyers away, and said angrily: "I have told you many times that you are not allowed to move our military aircraft, why are you still moving!"

The woman hugged his waist, and her soft body leaned on his chest and cried, "General, you surrender!"

"What did you say!"

An Taiqing pushed her away and said viciously: "If it weren't for your sake, I'd killed you with one sword. You won't be allowed to mention this matter again in the future."

After saying that, he turned his head and left. The woman fell to the ground, and her chest was churning again. Before she could find a clean bucket, she covered her mouth and vomited it out.

An Taiqing was shocked and hurriedly helped her up, "Do you have a child? Are you still here for your red example?"

The woman shook her head weakly, "I don't know, but the red case this month has passed long ago and it has not come."

"That's it!" An Taiqing was so happy that his chest was about to explode. He was almost fifty years old. He had three daughters in his family, but he had no sons. He was still in Youzhou and had fallen into the hands of the Tang army. Seeing that he was about to break the rear, this woman was happy. He thought about it carefully. This woman had been with him for half a year and should be his child.

"Come! Come! Come! Come! Lying down quickly." An Taiqing hurriedly carried the woman to the bed, lay her carefully, and held her hand to comfort her: "Don't ask about the military affairs. Since you have a child, I will consider it for you."

An Taiqing had no intention of having another meal. He called two maids to serve his concubines, and hurried to find Tian Chengsi. Unexpectedly, just as he approached the military camp, he met someone sent by An Qingxu to find him.

An Qingxu also received news that the Tang army had circulated leaflets, and even found such a list on his guards. An Qingxu immediately realized the seriousness of the matter. It was still a trivial matter to shake the morale of the army. If someone wanted to reward the high-ranking official, cut off An Qingxu's head or offered Xiangzhou to ask for merit, that would be his end.

As for this person, he naturally thought of Tian Chengsi. His special envoy had just talked with Tian Chengsi. Tian Chengsi said that it would strictly prohibit soldiers from talking about this matter. Those who violated the order would be killed, and he promised him that he had no choice but to do so.

Even though he said that, An Qingxu did not believe that he could only be relieved by eliminating Tian Chengsi and holding all his 15,000 elite soldiers in his hands. However, Tian Chengsi's central army was on high alert and had to change several places to sleep overnight. Even if the killer could go in, he would not be able to find him.

But An Taiqing's identity made An Qingxu finally think of a solution. When An Taiqing settled, he was also his uncle, and the An family member was Tian Chengsi's confidant.

"Uncle Qing! As long as you agree, I will reward you with 10,000 taels of gold immediately. Aren't you worried about having no children? This woman in Xiangzhou City can be used by you, and I will hand over Tian Chengsi's soldiers to you."

Seeing An Taiqing silent, An Qingxu squatted in front of him again, holding his arm and said sincerely: "The city of Xiangzhou is strong, with a lot of food and grass, and can be managed for more than one year. Li Qing's army is outside, and Chang'an will change over time. How could Li Qing not rush back? In this way, we will have another chance. At that time, I will go south to Jianghuai and make a comeback. Uncle Qing is my right prime minister."

Seeing that An Taiqing was a little shaken, An Qingxu stood up, pulled out an arrow, and broke it in two pieces and said, "If I violate the oath, there will be such an arrow!"

An Taiqing was silent for a long time, and finally nodded and said, "I can help you, but I can't do it!"

An Qingxu was overjoyed and said, "As long as you can lead my people into the central army, give him the passable card, and tell him that Tian Chengsi stayed overnight, you will be the first to achieve your contribution!"

"Well! For the sake of the same clan, I will help you this time!" An Taiqing lowered his head and hid a sinister smile in his eyes.

An Taiqing left An Qingxu's mansion and rushed back home immediately, took his concubine away and hid him. This was the only person An Qingxu could threaten him.

As soon as the sky was getting dark, An Taiqing hid the assassin whom An Qingxu had sent to see him in secretly into his tent.

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At the fourth update, Tian Chengsi's camp suddenly became turbulent, countless torches were ignited, and the angry shouts of soldiers drowned the entire camp. The commander Tian Chengsi was killed, and the person was gone.

"Brothers, this must be the dog thief An Qingxu killed General Tian! All the generals, we want to avenge General Tian!" Tian Chengsi's deputy general An Taiqing stood on the platform built with wooden boxes. His eyes were red and the fire was in the light of anger, making his face twisted, and it looked particularly ferocious. He raised his arms and roared loudly: "He was afraid that General Tian would surrender in the city, so he was vicious. Brothers! Zhang Zhongzhi betrayed, General Linghu and General Zhang Xiancheng were killed innocently, we have enough!"

"Take revenge! Revenge!"

The angry soldiers and generals responded to An Taiqing's mobilization with the call of revenge. Seeing that the time had come, An Taiqing tore off the military uniform on his arm, exposed his arms, and shouted loudly: "I want to surrender to the officers and soldiers, no longer be thieves, I hope that those who work with me will expose their right arm!"

After brushing the ground, almost all the soldiers and generals raised their bare arms. Several soldiers who did not raise their hands and were even in a hurry to tear their sleeves were immediately chopped over to the ground. An Taiqing sighed secretly, people's minds were surrendered, the situation was gone! The situation was gone!

"Brothers! Seize the West Gate and present the city to welcome the surrender!"

More than 10,000 soldiers burst out with a shocking roar, and drove towards the west gate.

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In the middle of December of the first year of Zhide, the rebels had internal conflicts. Tian Chengsi was assassinated by An Qingxu. Tian Chengsi's deputy general An Taiqing immediately led his troops to seize the Ximen and surrendered to the Tang army. The Tang army rushed into Xiangzhou, and the rebels surrendered one after another. Seeing that the situation was over, An Qingxu ignited the mansion and burned himself to death. Since then, An Lushan's rebellion ended. Li Qing immediately ordered: General Zhang Zhongzhi, Gao Hui, Li Riyue and other generals were all killed in the city. An Taiqing made great contributions in Xiancheng and rewarded tens of thousands of yuan, and promised to be named Duke Ye of the Kingdom of Ye, with a fief of thousands of households in Xiangzhou. An Taiqing immediately stated that the people of Xiangzhou were in trouble and did not have fiefs and were willing to redeem the people. Li Qing claimed his virtue and immediately appointed him as the governor of Xiangzhou; while An Lushan surrendered his army to take his elite troops, remove his old and weak, and all of them were organized into the Anxi Army.
Chapter completed!