Tian Chengsi led the army and rushed to the gate of Raoyang County, but he was stunned. He saw that the gate of Raoyang County was closed, flags were fluttering on the city top, a military flag of Guan Long Army was erected, and the city head was filled with soldiers.
It turned out that Xi Wanli had known that he would plunder the city, so he sent three thousand men to take a detour to Raoyang County, seize the county seat first, and move the people from the surrounding villages into the city.
At this moment, Tian Chengsi fell completely into despair, and his soldiers were also desperate. Food was cut off. They were hungry from breakfast and did not eat lunch.
For the army, the number one taboo is to cut off military rations. Once the army is starved, desertion will be a trivial matter, but a serious matter will lead to internal strife, mutiny, and even the commander-in-chief being killed.
So in history, why did the army eat people? It was because they had no choice but to eat people rather than starve the soldiers.
Tian Chengsi's heart was filled with excitement, and he shouted loudly: "Demolish the houses, find logs to build a bridge, take a ladder up to the city, and attack the city. All the women and wealth in the city can be taken by the brothers!"
When the situation is desperate, there is always a way. The cavalry rushed to several nearby villages, searched for food, demolished the houses, and took out the beams one by one.
Instead, they found some yams, radishes, melons, beans, etc., which the soldiers used to make soup. At this time, the soldiers also built two simple pontoons.
With no time left, Tian Chengsi immediately ordered the entire army to attack the city, including Donghu soldiers. They also rushed up to build human ladders and began to climb up.
At this time, all the people in the city came to the city, men, women, old and young, fighting each other desperately. Rolling logs and rocks were thrown down, and the soldiers of the Tang army stabbed with spears, chopped with swords, and bit with teeth. Both sides were furious.
At this moment, a series of low horn sounds came from several miles away, "Woo--Woo--"
The 40,000 main cavalry of the Tang army arrived. Of course, Xi Wanli would not use 50,000 cavalry to entangle the opponent's 18,000 weak brigade and waste time. He ordered Wei Ran to lead 10,000 cavalry to fight against the enemy. He led 40,000 cavalry to fight against the enemy.
Come to Raoyang County quickly.
Seeing the Tang army's cavalry coming in overwhelming numbers, Tian Chengsi sighed and had no choice but to abandon the army and flee north with a few sons and more than a hundred soldiers.
Tian Chengsi's army collapsed. The army withdrew and fled in all directions. The Donghu cavalry also had no horses. Their horses were in the rear and had been occupied by the Tang army.
There was chaos and crowds on the pontoon bridge, with soldiers scrambling for the first place and crying. In addition, there were arrows raining from the top of the city, and countless soldiers fell into the moat.
Tens of thousands of Tang Army cavalry had already reached the moat. The soldiers were desperate and knelt down to surrender. The escaping soldiers also had no hope. Twenty thousand cavalry moved from the south to the north, cutting off the soldiers' escape route.
Only thousands of Donghu soldiers refused to surrender. Even without war horses, they fought their way south to break through. Xi Wanli was furious and ordered them all to be annihilated without leaving any survivors.
More than 3,000 Donghu soldiers were surrounded by 10,000 Tang cavalry. The more they fought, the fewer they became. Eventually, they all disappeared and became the target of the Tang cavalry.
There were 24,000 troops. Except for Tian Chengsi who escaped with more than a hundred soldiers, the other soldiers either surrendered or died, and the entire army was destroyed.
The 18,000 men sent to entangle the Tang army also experienced a rare scene. The 10,000 Hezong Army soldiers were dissatisfied with Tian Chengsi's unfair treatment. Both the Dongsheng Army and the Guards ate horse meat last night, but only They didn't even drink a mouthful of soup.
The entire army was so angry that they defected before the battle. General Tian Qianzhen and deputy general Yang Guoye were killed by the rebels, and all 18,000 soldiers surrendered.
With a clever trick, Tian Chengsi's supply of food and grass was cut off, and Tian Chengsi's 120,000-strong army was finally destroyed.
Tian Chengsi led several of his sons and soldiers to plunder food and go north. His only idea now is to defect to the Uighurs and act as a guide for the Uighurs going south. Maybe he still has a way to survive.
That evening, Tian Chengsi and his party arrived at Gaoyang County, the northernmost part of Yingzhou.
I saw the gate of the county seat wide open, and the county magistrate Tang An led a group of officials out of the city to greet him.
Tang An and Tian Chengsi were from the same hometown. He once worked as a county school assistant. He defected to Tian Chengsi when he was young. Tian Chengsi recommended him to Anlu Mountain, and An Lushan appointed him as the magistrate of Gaoyang County, where he remains today.
Tian Chengsi ran for three days at a stretch and was exhausted. Seeing that he was an old friend, he felt relieved and ordered his men to go into the city to rest.
Tian Chengsi and his party were invited into the county post house. By this time, night had fallen. After eating and drinking, everyone was already exhausted and fell down to sleep.
In the middle of the night, one of his men was suddenly awakened by a crackling sound. He opened the window and found that the outside was full of fire.
The soldier was shocked and shouted: "Your Majesty, there is a fire!"
Tian Chengsi and his men were also awakened one after another and rushed into the yard. Sure enough, they were surrounded by fire.
Suddenly, a pile of burning objects flew from the air and landed in the yard with a 'boom!'. It turned out to be a pile of wheat straw, which had been ignited.
Everyone understood that the county magistrate had set a trap to burn them to death.
Everyone was so angry that they cursed, but Tian Chengsi had no time to curse. He immediately ordered: "Go to the stable and bring the horses!"
More than a dozen of his men ran towards the stable.
After a while, he came back and reported, "Your Majesty, the horses are all gone!"
"Damn it!"
Tian Chengsi gritted his teeth with hatred and ordered: "Get out of here, copycat!"
Several sons and soldiers guarded Tian Chengsi with swords and rushed to the front door.
The entire post house was shrouded in flames, and the fire became more intense as it approached the outer perimeter. The soldiers desperately tried to find a way out and rushed out of the gate.
As soon as they arrived outside the gate, they were faced with a hail of arrows. The soldiers, who were not wearing armor, fell to the ground after being hit by arrows.
Hundreds of archers are rural soldiers organized by the county.
Tian Chengsi faintly saw Tang An's figure and immediately shouted: "Tang An, who promoted you back then? How dare you be so ungrateful!"
Tang An also shouted back: "You, a national thief, have ruined Hebei so much. Do you still have the nerve to live?"
Tian Chengsi became angry with shame and ordered sternly: "Kill him out and take the head of this thief."
His soldiers rushed out to protect Tian Chengsi at all costs.
Tang An shouted: "Folks, the national thief Tian Chengsi is here to avenge your dead parents and brothers!"
Thousands of angry county residents charged in from all directions with sticks, hoes and spears in their hands, surrounding Tada Chengji and dozens of others. Their eyes flashed with hatred, and they rained down sticks and hoes.
Tian Chengsi, a powerful tyrant of the generation, died tragically in Gaoyang County.
In Hejian County, 80,000 troops formed a large formation, ready to attack the city at any time.
Guo Ziyi has just received an order from Li Ye, 'Don't be afraid of street fighting and capture Hejian as soon as possible!'
Guo Ziyi is worthy of being an experienced veteran. He divided a thousand firearms soldiers into 500 groups of two people, and then assigned one group to each brigade.
Then five hundred brigades were put into street fighting, each with a hundred men, for a total of 50,000 troops.
Guo Ziyi set the important attack point at the East City Gate because the warehouses in the city were close to the East City.
The four city gates launched an attack at the same time.
Three hundred steps away, a crossbowman raised a three-stone crossbow and aimed at the suspension bridge three hundred steps away.
The crossbowman's name is Li Kuan, a native of Chang'an. He has been the leader in two consecutive crossbow shooting competitions, with no missed arrows within three hundred steps.
At this time, Li Kuan was a little nervous. After all, he was using explosive arrows, and it was his first time to use such a powerful crossbow arrow.
Li Kuan took a deep breath and pulled the hanging knife.
"Click!"
The explosive arrow shot out instantly, accurately hitting the upper left corner of the suspension bridge. 'Boom!' Broken wood flew everywhere, and the chains of the suspension bridge flew up, and the huge suspension bridge sank heavily.