The job of a mercenary is to act as cannon fodder and do the most dangerous tasks.
The vassals and towns from all walks of life gathered in the Hezhong area. They were afraid of the thieves' sharp edges and hesitated to move forward. No one dared to act rashly. They all wanted to preserve their strength and compete for the fruits of victory. To put it simply, I just want to make last hits and pick up kills, and I don’t want to take damage from the front row.
Li Keyong's arrival boosted the morale of the troops in Hezhong.
"Go up and start a group!"
Li Keyong lived up to expectations and bravely acted as the vanguard. He sent his younger brother Li Kexiu to lead 500 people across the river for a probing attack.
More than 100,000 Tang troops did not dare to attack, but Shatuo only had 500 people who dared to cross the river to attack. This is the temperament of swallowing up mountains and rivers, this is the boldness of a skilled man, and this is a huge psychological deterrent to thieves.
"Master is here. Master, Li Keyong."
As early as the "Pang Xun Rebellion", the reputation of the Shatuo Cavalry was already resounding in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Anhui. The main force of the direct lineage of the Cao Army is the thugs in the southwestern part of Shandong and the northeastern part of Henan. They have heard of Shatuo for a long time.
Because the Shatuo cavalry led by Li Keyong liked to wear black, they were privately called the "Crow Army" by the Grass Army. Within the Cao Army, the "Crow Army" was so popular that there was a military rule circulating in the army: Never fight with the Crow Army (when the Crow Army arrives, you should avoid its front).
Li Kexiu led five hundred Shatuo cavalry to cross the river and attack, defeating several times the Cao army in one fell swoop. The Grass Army was shocked, and panic spread quickly, "The Crow Army is coming!"
When the news reached Chang'an, the top brass of the Cao Army also fell into panic, as if they had seen the end of the world.
While all the bandit leaders were at a loss, the bandit leader Huang Chao was calm and confident.
"Your Majesty, do you have a plan to retreat from the enemy?" Shang Rang asked.
Huang Chao smiled and nodded, "The soldiers will block it, and the water will cover it with earth. Shatuo crow, I have my own way."
The leader of the thieves couldn't help but praise Brother Thumb, "Brother Chao is indeed the hope of the whole village."
Facing the unstoppable Shatuo cavalry, what tricks does Huang Chao have to defeat the enemy?
Answer: Send a group of monks.
Huang Chao's clever plan was to calm the world and send monks to drive away the crows.
Taking a monk as a gift, what kind of cool thing is this? This certainly contains Huang Chao's superb wisdom.
These monks are from the Nanshan Buddhist Temple (south of Chang'an, at the foot of the Qinling Mountains).
At the beginning, Li Guochang and Li Keyong openly betrayed the imperial court and separatized Datong and Zhenwu. The imperial court ordered the execution of the Li Guochang clan members who stayed in Chang'an. Li Keyong's younger brother Li Keyong led his troops to break out of the encirclement and fled into Nanshan. When he stayed in a temple, he was plotted by the temple monks. The monks killed him and took his head to the court to ask for merit and receive rewards.
Of course, there is a serious lack of historical data about the early Shatuo people, and this record is very vague. "Zizhi Tongjian" says that the monk killed Li Keyong, but other historical books say that it was Li Keyong's other brother who died. In fact, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter which brother died. In short, the monk of Nanshan Temple did assassinate one of Li Keyong's brothers.
During that massacre, a servant named Hun Jintong in Li Guochang's family escaped and joined the Huangchao Army. Huang Chao asked Hun Jintong to serve as a peace envoy and escort these monks to Li Keyong's army.
This is Huang Chao's political wisdom. The action of letting Hun Jintong send the monk not only helped Li Keyong avenge his brother's murder, but also revealed a message to Li Keyong: We are the same species. Why be in a hurry?
How did your brother die? It was your father and son's betrayal of the imperial court that led to the murder. Hun Jintong and these monks are the best evidence.
Very tactful, very subtle, very clever.
Li Keyong thought of the people he saw, so he immediately killed all the monks, set up an altar, and used the dozens of naked heads to pay homage to his compatriots. After that, he accepted all the gold and silver gifts from Huang Chao and distributed them to the generals. Then, Huang Chao's "Edict" was burned in public and sent back to Huang Qi's envoy, asking him to bring a message to Huang Chao, "This commander-in-chief and the thieves are incompatible with each other!"
Huang Chao's wishful thinking failed.
【Battle of Liangtianpi】
Li Keyong personally led the army across the Yellow River, kicking off the decisive battle.
On the first day of the first month of the third year of Zhonghe (883), Li Keyong defeated Huang Chao's younger brother Huang Kui, opened the road to Chang'an, and assembled with the main corps such as Hezhong, Yiwu, and Zhongwu to garrison in Gankeng. The center of gravity of the River Army Group moved forward.
On Huang Qi's side, the second-in-command Shang Rang personally led an army of 150,000 and was stationed at Liang Tianpi.
Gankeng is located to the west of Tongzhou, and Liangtianpi is located to the west of Huazhou. The two stations are also facing each other across the river.
The "Battle of Liangtianpi" is of great significance. Like the previous "Battle of Longweipo", it is a knock-on battle that opens the door to Chang'an. The success or failure of the battle directly determines the safety of Chang'an City, and will have a significant impact on the morale of the two armies. It is also a watch-and-see battle that affects the political forces of each faction to choose sides.
With Li Keyong's blessing, the Tang army once again won this battle.
Shang Rang was defeated, and the corpses of the rebels stretched for more than 30 miles in the street. Wang Chongrong built the corpses as a palace in the capital.
Shang Rang led the remnants of his troops to flee to Huazhou, where he stayed behind closed doors with Huang Chao's younger brothers Huang Ye and Huang Kui.
Wang Chongrong led the main force to arrive and surrounded Huazhou City. Li Keyong and Zhu Wen acted as vanguards and took turns attacking the gates of Huazhou.
When the two armies were in a stalemate below the city, a bandit leader climbed up to the top of the city and cursed.
"Wang Chongrong, your ass is not clean! You first looted the east of Hedong, then launched a mutiny, claiming to stay as a queen, and then surrendered to Da Qi, but surrendered first and then rebelled. You are not a good bird from head to toe, from the inside out!
Zhu Wen, you are from the most humble background! In the early years, my dead father, your mother was shameless and shameless, and took you to live with others, and remarried others. It is indescribable, and let your dead father be a bastard. You are such a fake little bastard. The Cao Army treated you well and promoted you many times, but you turned traitor and surrendered to the enemy, betrayed the enemy for glory, turned against your former comrades, acted as a stooge, and was willing to be the vanguard and pawn of the Tang Army. You were a shameless bastard and a traitor. You will not die well!
Li Keyong, you bastard, do you know your last name? Zhu Xie, you bastard, do you have the nerve to call us thieves? You are a thief and shout to catch the thief! Looking at the good things you have done, are you any better than us? Look at your wicked appearance, big at first glance and small at second. There is a proverb in our hometown, 'There is no good intention in the eyes of others'! "
Li Keyong had a congenital physical defect, his eyes were one big and one small, and he was nicknamed "One-eyed Dragon". Being humiliated and insulted by such a thieves really made me furious. Ever since he was young, no one dared to talk to Li Keyong like this.
Don't slap people in the face when you hit them, don't expose their shortcomings when scolding people. It’s a daily romp. If the two armies were really in front of each other, they would have responded to that sentence, saying that there is no good hand in beating people and no good words in swearing. No matter how unpleasant it sounds, you can scold them and make a fuss about their shortcomings.
The scolding was too unpleasant and too harsh to be written here, everyone understands.
Li Ke ordered Shatuo's sharpshooter to kill the guy.
The Shatuo marksman bent his bow and set an arrow, and fired several arrows in a row.
The little leader of the grass thieves was hiding behind the walls, standing high above them. Ballistics tells us that the effective range of archers on the city wall is greater than that of archers below the city. This is basic physical knowledge. Therefore, since Li Keyong and Zhu Wen were hiding out of the range of the Cao army, the Cao army on the city wall was even more out of the range of the Tang army.
Seeing this, the thieves leader on the city wall became more impudent, emboldened, and even more abusive.
Li Keyong was so angry that he gritted his teeth and raised his hand to get the precious carved bow.
"General, don't be angry with thunder, move slowly like a tiger or a wolf. Don't get your hands dirty."
Looking around, it was Zhu Wen who spoke.
Zhu Wen summoned a young general and pouted at the city wall, "Think of a way to give him a shot."
The young junior readily accepted the order, buckled the string, and pulled it to a full circle.
Everyone held their breath, not daring to release their breath, and stared at him attentively. The surroundings were extremely silent, and they could only hear the sound of the bow strings tightening, "Creak, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click." The sound was full of power.
"Whoosh -" The arrow drew an incredible arc in the air with anger, and the man at the top of the city fell dead in response. Super range sniping.
Immediately there were cheers and cheers outside the city, which shook the valley and boosted morale.
Even Li Keyong was stunned and almost opened his eyes in surprise, "This young general is..."
"Inuzi, Yuyu."
Li Keyong repeatedly praised, "The father of the tiger has no son! I thought that when I was thirteen, I could kill two birds with one stone. My dear brother, the son of the tiger is very promising at a young age. With just one arrow, I am ashamed of myself!"
After that, Li Keyong gave Zhu Youyu the precious eagle bow and one hundred arrows he had with him. Giving gifts of weapons, armor, famous horses and other items is a courtesy between soldiers to show respect and appreciation for each other. In particular, the gift of arrows is a sign of care from elders to younger generations among ethnic minorities.
It needs special explanation here. According to feudal rites, only superiors can give arrows to subordinates, and elders can give arrows to younger ones. Vice versa is considered rude. Just like in Han rites, elders can caress the heads of younger people, but younger people cannot caress the heads of older people.
Li Keyong and Zhu Wen considered themselves brothers, so they gave arrows to Zhu Youyu, his nephew. Later, a man presented an arrow to Li Keyong in order to show his goodwill, and flattered him by slapping the horse's hoof, which directly angered Li Keyong and led to tragic results, which will be mentioned later.
Li Keyong and Zhu Wen became close comrades-in-arms. In the ensuing war against thieves, the two formed a profound fighting friendship, laying the foundation for their future separation. This is something.
The Hezhong Group Army won the "Battle of Liangtianpi" and stationed at Weiqiao, approaching the city.
