Luoyang, the main hall of Shangyang Palace.
An Lushan was like a trapped beast, roaring loudly in the hall.
Civil servants and military generals such as An Qingxu, An Shouzhong, Li Guiren and Ashina Chengqing remained silent.
The reason An Lushan was so angry was that Shi Siming, who he relied on as his arm, suffered a huge defeat in Jiashan, Hebei Province. He lost countless soldiers and generals, and even more than a dozen states in the central part of Hebei Province rebelled again. Tang, this time directly cut the rebel territory in half.
Now a huge problem has been placed in front of An Lushan.
Should we continue to storm Tongguan? Or should we quickly surrender the policy in Yuyang?
An Lushan actually knew very well that there was no way out if he surrendered the bail in Yuyang.
Because Youzhou alone is not enough to compete with the entire Tang Dynasty in terms of human, material and financial resources, so his only chance is to capture Chang'an and replace Li Tang.
Thinking of this, An Lushan hated Shi Siming even more.
An Qingxu, who had always been dissatisfied with Shi Siming, took the opportunity to fan the flames.
"Grandpa, Shi Siming did it on purpose. I heard someone said that his elite troops did not participate in the war at all. He just wanted to give up the central area of Hebei to the Shuofang Army under Guo Shanyi, and then lead Guo and Li's army to Henan Road. , come and fight us, so that he, Shi Siming, can preserve his strength."
"Shut up, Shi Siming is not such a person, I believe him."
An Lushan was actually already suspicious of Shi Siming's motives, but he would never show it in front of others, not even his son An Qingxu. It must be said that An Lushan understood human nature.
After a pause, An Lushan asked An Qingxu again: "It's you, how did you handle the matter you were told?"
"I was about to report to Grandpa." An Qingxu hurriedly crossed his hands and said, "My son has found an old hunter and said that there is indeed a path in Forbidden Valley to bypass Tongguan City, but even if Tongguan is bypassed, there is no way to escape from Forbidden Valley and Tongguan. There are also twelve connected cities on the mountain ridges in Shuijian. Although most of these twelve connected cities are just small forts, due to the steep terrain, it is extremely difficult to attack, and it is easy to be attacked from two sides by the Tang army from Tongguan and Chang'an. Once trapped, In the forbidden ditch, it’s really a dead end.”
"Trash, you can't handle such a small thing." An Lushan was merciless when he scolded his son.
This is also the cleverness of An Lushan in controlling people. When he wins a battle, he will not reward his son, but if he suffers a loss, he will severely reprimand his son. This can give people a clear image of being fair in dealing with things.
Secretly, he will give An Qingxu a hint that you will succeed him in the future.
Speaking of which, this move was actually very clever, but An Lushan ignored an important point. He was a Hu, and his son An Qingxu was also a Hu. He had never received Confucian education, and he never recognized the father-son relationship between monarch and minister.
So after being scolded, An Qingxu didn't say anything, but he hated An Lushan in his heart.
An Lushan turned his attention to An Shouzhong again: "Zhong'er, Ge Shuhan still refuses to leave seclusion?"
"Here." An Shouzhong crossed his hands and said with some helplessness, "Cui Qianyou just sent someone to report, but Ge Shuhan is still hiding in Tongguan City and refuses to come out."
An Lushan frowned and said, "I asked you to send more old and weak people, have you sent them?"
"Go back to Grandpa, we've all been sent." An Shouzhong said, "The seven thousand people sent to fight outside Tongguan City are all old and weak, but Brother Shuhan, an old pig and dog, is afraid of being beaten. He would rather be scolded and cowered. Refuses to leave seclusion."
Hearing this, An Lushan couldn't help but cursed bitterly: "It's all the fault of these two thieves Yan Zhuang and Gao Shang."
An Lushan's cronies and intelligence agencies who stayed in Chang'an were all in charge of Yan Zhuang and Gao Shang. As a result, these two guys went to Chang'an to take the imperial examination because of an edict from the Tang court. They were all reported, causing the intelligence agency he left in Chang'an to be uprooted by Tang Ting.
So now there is no way to feed Li Longji through internal communication.
Otherwise, if you think of a way to give Li Longji some advice, there is a chance that Li Longji will issue an order to force Ge Shuhan to leave seclusion.
While the matter was being discussed, Sun Xiaozhe hurriedly walked in and crossed his hands and said: "Jie Shuai, there were two more Han officials who wanted to run away just now, and I happened to catch them. They have been caught now. What should I do with them?"
"Take him to the food market and behead him," An Lushan said angrily.
Ashina Chengqing said worriedly: "Jie Shuai, it won't be a problem if this continues."
An Lushan also felt that he could not continue like this. The current situation was already precarious. Now it was only the Han officials who were running away. In a few days, it would be the Hu officials who were running away. Then it would be the generals' turn to escape. It's really a big deal. Tang Ting only needs to send a team of Wuhou to capture him and bring him back to Chang'an.
At that moment, An Lushan said with a dark face: "Find some monks to spread the verses. I want to be the emperor! The name of the country is Dayan!"
At present, only by ascending the throne and proclaiming himself emperor, and then lavishly rewarding the civilian and military generals under his command, can he revive the morale of the army. Otherwise, his army of hundreds of thousands will soon fall apart.
"Here!" Ashina Chengqing was immediately overjoyed.
An Shouzhong, Li Guiren and other generals were also happy.
The happiest person is An Qingxu, he is going to be the prince.
…
An Qingxu became the crown prince of Dayan, but his brother An Qingzong was beheaded by Li Longji.
Speaking of which, Li Longji had always had illusions about An Lushan. He always felt that An Lushan's rebellion was for a reason, and he did not really want to rebel against the Tang Dynasty.
After An Lushan raised his army, he only said that he wanted to clear the emperor's side, which gave Li Longji more room for daydreams.
However, the news that came from Luoyang a few days ago completely shattered Li Longji's fantasy. An Lushan, a Hu'er, actually became emperor in Luoyang and founded the country of Yan. It was simply unreasonable.
After receiving the report, Li Longji immediately ordered Anqing Zong to be taken to the West City and beheaded in public.
After beheading Anqingzong, Li Longji was still angry and determined to conquer personally.
Yes, you read that right. The rebels were at a standstill in Tongguan, and Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi won consecutive battles in Hebei. So Li Longji felt that the Tang Dynasty was ready again, so he wanted to personally conquer the country and show off the might of the dragon.
Of course, the arrival of King Qin's troops from various military prefectures in Jiannan, Shannan and Longyou Road was also an important reason.
By March of the fourteenth year of Tianbao, the total strength of King Qin's army gathered near Chang'an exceeded 100,000, of which 20,000 were Uighur cavalry from the grasslands.
Yes, historically the Tang Dynasty only borrowed four thousand soldiers.
But this time the Tang Dynasty did not borrow troops, but Huihe sent 20,000 cavalry to serve the king.
Before the emperor's personal expedition, Li Longji pretended to come to ask Lu Tianshi for an order.
Lu Xiaoning did not try to dissuade or persuade Li Longji. What did he say? You should never try to convince anyone, because you can never convince anyone.
Of course, Lu Xiaoning could also use the name of Tianshi to forcefully stop Li Longji.
However, considering that most of the people who gathered in Chang'an this time were Huihe, Qiang, Dangxiang, Miyao and other vassal states, and these Hu people themselves had bad intentions, it was not so much King Qin as they were here to spy on the truth.
This is especially true for the 20,000 Uighur light troops led by Prince Yehu of Uighur.
So Lu Xiaoning didn't mind at all that these barbarians followed Li Longji and suffered a big defeat.
After all, after these barbarians are defeated, the next step of integration will be smoother.
Another reason is that the 200,000 Tubo militiamen led by Li Siye have already reached Longxi, which is less than a thousand miles away from Chang'an and can be reached in ten days of urgent march.
Therefore, Lu Xiaoning wanted to give An Lushan a hard time.
Once Li Longji suffered a defeat in Luoyang, he asked Ge Shuhan to protect Li Longji and retreat to the old city of Tongguan in Han Dynasty, allowing An Lushan's rebels to advance from Tongguan into Guanzhong.
After the rebels passed Tongguan, Ge Shuhan led his army to dive down from Tongguan Plain and recapture Tongguan City.
At the same time, Li Siye's army had also reached Guanzhong and was directly facing An Lushan's rebels.
As a result, Anlushan's rebels would not be able to even plunder the surrounding villages and towns, let alone attack Chang'an City.
At this time, the situation faced by the Anlushan rebels was that in the front was Chang'an Jiancheng and Li Siye's army, in the back was Tongguan, which was again controlled by Ge Shuhan, in the north was the Weishui River and the Yellow River, and in the south was Nanshan. Therefore, once the battle is defeated, the entire army will basically be destroyed, and there will be no chance to escape.
As for whether the rebels will fight to the death after being cornered?
Lu Xiaoning was not worried at all because he was Lu Tianshi.
