A fire burned until dawn and the entire town of Lantian County was burned to a white ground. Occasionally, some ruins could still be seen. At this time, it started to rain with sleet and the weather became cold.
After Li Ye agreed to surrender, the Yan army soldiers in the city finally got a chance to survive. More than 21,000 people escaped from the south gate and became prisoners of war of the Tang army, including Gao Xiuyan, who was exposed as a soldier.
.
The soldiers of the Tang army tied up Gao Xiuyan and escorted him to Li Ye. Li Ye angrily said: "As the majestic general of the Datong Army, you actually led your army to surrender to Anlu Mountain and aided the tyranny. This is an unforgivable crime. I will push you out and behead you!"
The soldiers pushed him down, and Gao Xiuyan turned around and yelled at the top of his lungs: "Your Highness, King Lu, I also have merit, which can be used to offset my sins!"
Li Ye asked the soldiers to push him back again and asked coldly: "What credit do you have?"
Gao Xiuyan knelt down on one knee and said: "Your Highness, Ashina Chengqing ordered the people in the city to be killed in order to seize food. It was his humble position that persuaded him not to kill people and drove the people out of the city. His humble position did not let the soldiers kill the young woman.
Stay so that all the women can escape from the city.
How many cities did An Lushan's army massacre and how many women were humiliated? In which city's people escaped with their lives and in which city's women were saved? How could they leave the city safely if they were not intentionally spared by their humble position?"
"But thousands of old people were killed, and it was you who did it!"
"It's not a humble position. Ashina Chengqing ordered his confidant General Feli to kill him. He is among the prisoners of war. If the general can interrogate him, he will know that every word of the humble position is true. He will never dare to deceive His Highness!"
Li Ye looked at him for a long time and then asked: "Why did you do this?"
"Bi Zhi was born in the Bohai Gao family and was also a Han. He was not as cruel as the Hu people and could not bear to kill ordinary people. Bei Zhi did not surrender to An Lushan. He was the governor of Hedong and was Bei Zhi's immediate superior. He transferred me and the Datong Army to
He was guarding Yizhou, and he falsely conveyed the imperial edict to go to Chang'an to be with Qingjun. All our Han soldiers followed him southward in confusion. Later they found out the truth, but it was too late."
Li Ye said coldly to the people around him: "Take him down and imprison him. If he lies, I will sacrifice his head to the flag!"
Several soldiers took Gao Xiuyan down, and after a while they brought Feli up. Feli was from Bohai, with a sinewy face and a very fierce appearance. He was also disguised as a soldier and was exposed.
Feli was originally Shi Siming's subordinate. He had massacred many Hebei counties with Shi Siming, and his hands were full of blood debts. Later, he followed Ashina Chengqing to Chang'an. He also knew that he could not save himself, so he simply took the risk.
Feli straightened his back without kneeling, and looked at Li Ye coldly. His leg bones were broken by a Tang army soldier with a stick, and he fell to his knees. This man was extremely strong, and his legs were in severe pain, but he still remained silent.
"Did you kill the more than 4,000 elderly people in the county?" Li Ye asked coldly.
Feli sighed loudly, "So what if I killed Grandpa? I killed more than 4,000 old dogs. I killed 30,000 people in Boling County. I killed them like dogs. The women I fucked
If you don’t have eight hundred, you can still have one thousand. That’s enough. If you have the guts, just kill me!”
Li Ye narrowed his eyes, and suddenly swung the sword in his hand, with a cold light, and with a "click!", the big head fell to the ground, and the headless body fell to the ground, blood spurting out.
Li Ye coldly ordered: "Pull out all the Hu people among the prisoners of war and behead them. We would rather kill them by mistake than let them go!"
The soldiers of the Tang Army began to seize the Hu people from the group of prisoners of war, and took them to the woods in batches to beheaded. More than 5,000 people were killed, and more than 16,000 other Han prisoners of war were trembling with fear.
Immediately afterwards, Li Ye encouraged the soldiers to expose each other's crimes. Anyone who was exposed by three or more people should be executed!
In the blink of an eye, more than 2,000 people who had participated in the massacre of the city and had heavy blood debts in their hands were beheaded. Only then did Li Ye let these prisoners go and ordered a thousand cavalry to escort them to the Shangzhou Prisoner of War Camp, and then send them in batches.
Return to Xiangyang.
In the afternoon, the remaining warmth in the city disappeared, and soldiers of the Tang army began to enter the city to clean up the battlefield. The city was full of corpses. Most of the soldiers died of suffocation, and thousands of others were burned to death and shot with arrows.
Discarded leather bags and boxes can be seen everywhere in the open space of the City God's Temple, all of which are filled with gold, silver and copper coins, as well as bundles of silk and satin cloth. On the road from the City God's Temple Square to the South City Gate, the ground is littered with discarded property.
Of course, these were the property of the people of Lantian County. They were all confiscated by the Yan army, and finally fell into the hands of the Tang army.
But what surprised Li Ye was that the general Ashina Chengqing was missing. His body was not found, nor among the prisoners of war. He was missing together with more than a dozen of his soldiers, which raised many doubts.
Li Ye once again ordered people to bring Gao Xiuyan up and inquire about Ashina Chengqing's whereabouts.
Gao Xiuyan said for a while: "When the fire first started burning, I met him for the last time at the county government office. Then I called the soldiers to take shelter in the square. This was all my duty. After the fire broke out, the city was in chaos, and there was thick smoke everywhere."
I haven’t seen him either.”
"What about the others? Have the others seen him?"
Gao Xiuyan shook his head, "I also found him in my humble position, but I didn't find him. I asked many people, but I didn't see him!"
Pei Xiu said next to him: "Your Highness, is there a tunnel in the county government office?"
Li Ye frowned, "Probably not! Magistrate Shen will tell me if there is any."
"Perhaps even County Magistrate Shen doesn't know about it? After all, he has only been the county magistrate for a few months. It is possible that he has not discovered it yet."
Li Ye nodded. It was indeed possible. He immediately ordered: "Go and clean up the county government office and turn it upside down for me."
Pei Xiu personally led a thousand soldiers to the county government office to search.
The imperial palace in Chang'an City faced south and its back was north. The positions of the county offices in the counties under Chang'an were all different. The counties in the west faced east and their backs were to the west, while the counties in the east faced west and their backs to the east. They all faced Chang'an.
The county government office of Lantian County faces west and faces east, close to the east city wall.
The county government office was also burned down in the fire, leaving only ruins. The soldiers rummaged through the piles of bricks and stones. There was not a single body in the county government office, indicating that no one in the county government office was killed in the fire.
Most of the soldiers are concentrating on cleaning up the county magistrate's inner house, which is where the magistrate lives. It is close to the city wall. If there is a tunnel, it should be here.
Suddenly a soldier shouted, "Found it!"
Pei Xiu ran over quickly, and a soldier pointed at a broken wall and said, "General, please look at this wall!"
Only then did Pei Xiu realize that there was an iron door on the wall. It was deformed by the fire and covered with snowflakes. The wall was also pitch black. You wouldn't have noticed the iron door if you weren't paying attention. Looking at the burned tables, chairs and cabinets on the ground, it should be here.
It's a utility room, filled with all kinds of sundries.
"Open it!" Pei Xiu ordered.
The soldier wrapped a rope around the iron gate and pulled it open. A large dark hole appeared in the wall. Pei Xiu walked in and found that the hole went straight into the city wall.
Li Ye got the news and hurried over. He walked into the big hole and found that it was inside the city wall. The inside of the city wall was tamped with soil. He dug a large hole in the soil, placed a roof board, and used wooden stakes to hold it up, forming a seven-foot-high wall.
Eight square meters of space.
There is a stone slab on the ground. When you lift the stone slab, there is a large dark hole inside, which goes through the bottom of the moat and leads to the outside of the city.
Li Ye's face suddenly became very ugly. No wonder Ashina Chengqing was not worried about burning down the county town. It turned out that he himself had been prepared and he could escape unscathed.
"When did the cavalry outside Dongcheng retreat?" Li Ye turned around and asked.
Pei Xiu quickly bowed and said: "When all the enemy troops surrendered, the 20,000 cavalrymen withdrew, probably at the fourth watch."
Li Ye was really helpless. At the fourth watch last night, it was already afternoon, and Ashina Chengqing was already in love.
I still underestimated the old fox Ashina Chengqing!
