In late March, Yang Qixuan followed Jiwen to escort grain and grass to Shiling Pass.
This is the season when the weather is at its best in northern Shanxi. Xinzhou was called "Xiurong" in ancient times, which shows its scenery. Yang Qixuan couldn't help but think of the past when Li Shiniang often said that one day she would leave Chang'an and visit Beidu.
Unfortunately, his current wife is an An, and she is as big as three Li Shiniang.
"What are you thinking about?" Ji Wen slapped him awake from the past and said, "You haven't met Li Guiren, the commander of Yiluohe, have you?"
"What is Yiluohe?"
"Fu Jun's carefully selected private soldiers, the best among the best, and Li Guiren is Fu Jun's adopted brother. Don't offend him when you see him."
Listening to Ji Wen's narration with bad breath, an image of a rude, domineering and murderous Turkic general gradually formed in Yang Qixuan's mind, which was very scary.
Finally, the team entered the Anlu Mountain camp.
"Look, that camp is at Yiluohe. They use the best armor and war horses. We also need to transport our best batch of food and grass there. Let's go."
The tents in the camp were neatly arranged, and a group of shirtless giants were wrestling. They were all big and round, and the circumference of their arms felt bigger than Yang Qixuan's head. They hit each other with a loud "bang bang" sound.
Yang Qixuan didn't dare to look at them, for fear of being pulled over and smashed to pieces.
In addition, there are people who are shooting arrows. The bows they use are long and hard, and there are countless stones. When they are drawn, there is a "creak" sound, which makes people's scalp numb. Amidst the "swish" sound of the wind, the arrows are flying.
Shoot out and smash the target into pieces.
"How is it?" Ji Wen asked.
"He is indeed a strong man selected from thousands of people." Yang Qixuan felt a shadow in his heart and said sincerely: "With such a strong army, why should the emperor not be able to dominate the world."
While watching these warriors displaying force and unloading food and grass, they left the camp at Yiluohe in fear and went to see Anlu Mountain.
On this day, An Shouzhong happened to be here, chatting with Li Guiren.
"Yang Lang, your father-in-law asked you to go over and see General Li."
"ah?"
Yang Qixuan was very afraid of seeing Li Guiren, so he entered the tent in a nervous mood.
The small space in the tent was already filled to the brim by two people. An Shouzhong was already quite plump, but Li Guiren was even bigger. This Turkic man's dark beard grew like a weed on his chin.
He has a wolf-like ferocious gaze.
"I played ten rounds yesterday and won more than 5,000."
Li Guiren's voice was low and hoarse, and his Chinese had a strong Turkic accent. When he saw someone coming in, he just raised his eyes briefly and continued talking to An Shouzhong.
Yang Qixuan stood respectfully behind An Shouzhong, shocked in his heart, secretly thinking that Yiluohe was really brave and could kill more than 5,000 people in one battle.
An Shouzhong shook his head and said, "I just stepped in. I lost almost a thousand dollars."
"Dugu Wensu also won, right?" Li Guiren asked.
An Shouzhong said: "He also won a lot. Hey, that kid lost the most, does he have this number?"
He gestured with the word "seven".
Yang Qixuan listened and thought that there were many battlefields in yesterday's battle, and each army had its own victory or defeat. However, he was a little confused as to how the many troops at Shiling Pass were deployed.
Li Guiren rubbed his chin with his fingers, and said with a murderous look: "Let's do a few more rounds in the afternoon, eat dog intestines, and let that kid lose completely!"
"Okay, kill him with vigor." An Shou Zhong responded.
This must be talking about Xue Bai. Yang Qixuan touched his lips and felt the missing front teeth inside, thinking that Xue Bai was really miserable when he encountered such a powerful enemy like Li Guiren.
"By the way." An Shouzhong said, "This is my son-in-law, Yang, who is Yang?"
He patted his head and complained softly that his memory was bad, but he was too lazy to think about it any more. He said to Li Guiren, "My son-in-law is not very skilled at all. Let him fight with you for two rounds this afternoon."
Yang Qixuan was shocked when he heard this.
He looked at the veins on Li Guiren's neck, his eyelids twitched, and he said in fear: "No, no, I'm not good at battle formations. You must not follow the general to fight!"
"Ha ha ha ha."
Li Guiren laughed loudly, and then An Shouzhong also laughed. After the two laughed, they ignored Yang Qixuan and continued chatting on their own.
"To be honest with you, there are not many people in Fan Yang's army who can convince me in terms of their skills."
"Dugu Wensu has great skills, but he always likes to win big. If it doesn't work, he will do it when he should do it."
"No definite number." Li Guiren shook his head firmly, appearing very authoritative, and said slowly in his deep voice: "After I fought with you yesterday afternoon, I also fought with Zhang Tongru and the others at night, and won by eight hundred
, I can count cards better than those who study."
An Shouzhong leaned forward and listened carefully.
"Let's talk about splitting the cards. Which one do you choose between seventy and ninety thousand?"
"Ninety thousand."
"I'm different. I'm a card counter. Ask all of Fan Yang how many people can win money from Zhang Tongru..."
They spoke with heavy accents, and Yang Qixuan could only understand roughly, but as he listened, he gradually realized that the discussion seemed not to be about marching and fighting, but about dominoes?
It was hard for Yang Qixuan to believe that a fierce Turkic general could have such a fondness for and in-depth study of dominoes. He suspected that he had heard wrong several times, but after waiting for a while, An Lushan hadn't come yet, and the game had already been put on the table.
.
"Erlang is here. Have you brought any money today?"
The young man who walked into the tent was An Qingxu, who must be "that boy" they called him.
An Qingxu had obviously just woken up. His eyes were slightly swollen. He waved his hands and said with a wry smile: "Now that I am stationed here, I have nowhere to transfer money. Could you please give me some grace, uncle?"
Li Guiren actually refused to give An Qingxu face, and still had a powerful expression on his face, saying: "There are winners and losers at the poker table, so it would be pointless to default on the bill."
An Qingxu was helpless and hesitated for a while, then called his attendants and gave some instructions.
Everyone thought he was sending someone to get the money, but they didn't expect that after a while, two beautiful girls were brought in.
Yang Qixuan was a person who loved beauty, and his eyes were straightened when he saw it. However, they were led to Li Guiren and stood there shyly, which made people feel pity.
"These are the Silla maids I just bought." An Qingxu was a little unwilling and said: "They are trapped here and have nowhere to spend the money. Instead, they can accompany their uncle to relieve his boredom, and let me use them to pay off gambling debts, but
good?"
Yang Qixuan was greedy, but Li Guiren's big hands had already wrapped around the slim waists of the two Silla maids.
"Hahaha, Erlang still keeps his word. Come on, fight again."
An Qingxu said: "If my father knows this, he won't dare to talk to my two uncles, but he will definitely scold me."
"I didn't play much in the past. I was just waiting here in front of the city. If I didn't play dominoes, how could I pass the time?"
Li Guiren once again began to express his dissatisfaction with An Lushan's unwillingness to listen to his words and storm Shiling Pass, so everyone had to play dominoes with him.
But before Dugu Wensu came, An Qingxu looked at Yang Qixuan, smiled slightly, and asked: "Brother Yang is from Guanzhong, so he must be very good at playing cards. Can he show off his skills?"
Yang Qixuan secretly glanced at the two Silla maids with his peripheral vision, and for a moment he felt dizzy, thinking that he might be able to win them away from Li Guiren?
"Then let Erlang arrange it."
"Haha, I dare to go to the 'battlefield' now." An Shouzhong laughed and got up first and walked to the card table.
~~
Touching the warm jade dominoes with his fingers, it was like a sweet spring nourishing his soul. Yang Qixuan finally forgot that he was among wolves, tigers and leopards. He seemed to have returned to the prosperous Chang'an, immersed in the game of cards.
The time that was originally painful has become fleeting.
When it got dark, the two Silla maids lit the candles obediently, took the roast mutton sent by the soldiers, cut it into small pieces with a knife, and distributed it to the four people on the card table.
"Yang Lang, please use it."
Yang Qixuan's heart melted when he heard those soft whispers. When he reached out to take the chopsticks, he almost touched the maid's hand, but in front of An Shouzhong, he must not have dared.
Li Linfu was terrible back then, and An Shouzhong in front of him was even more terrible.
"bump."
He withdrew his mind and saw An Qingxu playing another card for Li Guiren to touch.
"What a fool!"
Yang Qixuan knocked down Li Guiren's card before he could take it away.
He didn't notice Li Guiren raising his eyes, the look in his eyes was so horrifying, he was just calculating how many chips he still had. He won a lot today, enough for An Qingxu to give him two more Silla maids.
Unfortunately, Li Guiren was also the winner, and An Qingxu lost the most today.
"I am short of money. Brother Yang, can you allow me to go back to Fan Yang and pay you double the amount?"
Although Yang Qixuan was so lustful that he knew it was impossible to get a beautiful maid in their hands, he responded politely: "It doesn't matter, it's just for fun."
"Let's go together."
"good."
It was already late at night.
It was quiet in the camp, and most of the soldiers had gone to sleep.
The two young men left the tent and moved away from the tent. An Qingxu suddenly lowered his head and smiled, saying: "Brother Yang, don't worry, I understand what you want, and I will give it to you quietly when the time comes."
"ah?"
The night wind blew, and Yang Qixuan shivered, the hair on his body stood up, and he got goosebumps. He was so frightened that his neck was stiff, and he turned to look at An Qingxu, only to see a look with a slightly lustful look in his eyes.
, then I realized that An Qingxu was going to give him an outer room.
"Then, thank you Erlang."
"Brother Yang and I hit it off right away. Come on, come to my tent and have a few more drinks."
"OK."
Yang Qixuan felt how strong An Qingxu's hand on his back was, and then he realized that An Lushan's second son was by no means a wasteful fool. On the contrary, he was very scheming.
In fact, money can be exchanged in Xinzhou. When Yang Qixuan came over, he quietly bumped into people from the branch of Fenghui Bank in Xinzhou and knew that there were abundant reserves of coins, leather goods, and pepper.
An Qingxu deliberately lost cards and crowded around generals like Li Guiren.
This is the most common method in Chang'an official circles, and Yang Qixuan himself is well versed in this method. However, An Qingxu's great strength lies in his natural and sincere performance.
"Erlang is also a motivated person."
"Progress?"
"This is a popular term in Chang'an officialdom, and it is Xue..."
"call out--"
Suddenly, a bright and dazzling light burst out in the northern sky.
It was the first time for An Qingxu to see this scene. He looked up and immediately froze there. His pupils reflected the beautiful scene and he murmured: "What is that?"
"It's fireworks. You know Xue Bai, right? He..."
"I know!"
An Qingxu was shocked and quickly turned around and ran towards An Lushan's tent, cursing in his mouth.
"Eating dog intestines, his reinforcements have arrived."
"Erlang, what's wrong?"
An Qingxu did not answer. Ahead, An Shouzhong and Li Guiren had already rushed out of the tent and shouted: "What happened?!"
"North!" An Qingxu shouted angrily: "Fireworks are lit from the north!"
"The enemy soldiers have come around behind us?"
"I'm even more afraid that they have reinforcements coming."
Yang Qi preached: "Maybe they sent people to the north to set off fireworks."
After hearing this sudden sentence, An Qingxu looked back at him, surprised that he could come up with such an unconventional idea in such a chaotic situation... He was really a general.
Most people really can't react so quickly.
"That's right, please calm down." An Qingxu said, "Protect my grandpa first."
In the distance, there was a noise, which seemed to be coming from the Yiluohe camp. Someone was shouting something in nonsense, but it was hard to hear clearly.
Li Guiren walked more than ten steps to the north and listened carefully. Gradually, he finally heard clearly.
"Enemy attack!"
Li Guiren woke up immediately and became furious.
He had long said that he would attack Shiling Pass by force, but those people had to wait for the imperial court to issue an order to kill Wang Zhongsi. Now, let those useless enemy soldiers take the lead.
"Blow the horn! The Yiluohe army listens to my order!"
"call--"
~~
Listening to the horn sound, Yan Weiyue couldn't help but think of a poem.
"The sound of the trumpet fills the autumn sky, and it is stuffed with swallow fat to condense the night purple."
He liked this poem very much, but a doubt flashed through his mind from time to time. The Battle of Yanmen was clearly in spring, but why did Xue Bai write "Autumn Colors"?
Ahead, a bonfire was reflected in his eyes. Yan Weiyue came back to his senses and no longer thought about these small things.
It's strange that when it is clearly the most dangerous time, there are some irrelevant thoughts.
"Go to camp!"
Team after team of cavalry threw their nooses, hung them on the fence, and drove their horses backwards, pulling the fence to the ground with a loud bang.
Immediately afterwards, a group of cavalry from behind rushed towards the camps with their long legs straight.
"Kill!"
Some soldiers rushed out of the tent to see what was going on. They were all tall, strong, and fierce, but they did not wear armor when they were resting.
Most of the armor An Lushan carefully forged for them was left in the camp.
As a result, the strong body collided with the long body, and blood spurted out.
But the army that was attacked was Yiluohe, and they were warriors. Under such a charge, some warriors nimbly dodged Changshan's attack, fell to the ground, rolled over, and groped from their boots.
He took out his dagger and stabbed it into the horse's belly.
"Hey!"
The war horse neighed sadly and fell to the ground. It was like a tree being chopped down in the woods, sending up fallen leaves all over the sky.
The warriors of the Yiluohe Army are so powerful. This kind of resistance is no less difficult than cutting down a tree with a dagger. However, this kind of personal bravery does not seem to be enough in tonight's attack.
"puff."
A long spear sent from the rear stabbed this one-in-a-ten thousand warrior to death.
Yun Zhongjun marched forward in an orderly manner, walking on blood.
After that, Wang Ruo's figure appeared in the firelight, riding a horse and carrying a gun. On the battlefield, he seemed to have an invisible evil aura all over his body.
~~
"Who's here to kill?!"
Li Guiren finally rushed back to the Yiluohe camp. He looked up and saw brightly lit fires across the connected tents.
Fortunately, the Eight Thousand Yiluo River was not defeated so quickly, and the awakened warriors had already begun to put on their armor.
Li Guiren also rushed back to his tent and put on his armor. At the same time, his secretary-general Dugu Wensu came up to him and replied: "General, it seems to be the Yunzhong Army."
"What? Why did Yun Zhongjun appear here? Did Cai Xide die violently at Yanmen Pass?!"
Dugu Wensu was silent for a while and responded: "We were attacked suddenly and we didn't have time to investigate. But today only Jiwen came from Xinzhou to transport grain. Yun Zhongjun probably followed Jiwen's team in the name of escorting grain and grass.
OK."
"Go get it!"
"I don't have proof yet."
"I don't have any evidence here." Li Guiren was a general who killed people without blinking an eye, not an official in charge of torture in the court, and he was very rough in handling matters.
After a few words of reply, he had already put on his armor and felt a little tingling in his chest. It turned out that there were still many domino chips in his arms. He threw them away and suddenly remembered something.
"Yun Zhongjun? Where is my son?"
Dugu Wensu bowed and said, "I'm afraid... something unexpected happened."
"Fuck it!"
Li Guiren cursed fiercely and walked out of the tent with his knife.
"Warriors! Don't mess up! Disperse on horseback and kill the enemy!"
His command is very simple, because each of his warriors has superb riding skills, archery skills, and is brave in battle. As long as they can calm down in the panic of the attack, one of them can be as strong as ten people.
Those eight thousand Yiluohe are an army of eighty thousand.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Here we are still trying to appease the morale of the troops, but drums are already beating loudly at Shiling Pass in the south.
Dugu Wensu immediately changed his expression and said, "Wang Zhongsi also came out."
"Well done!"
Li Guiren was not afraid, but said with a ferocious smile: "We cannot be defeated in one sneak attack. We will wait until dawn and I will kill Wang Zhongsi!"
…
This night was filled with chaos of blood and fire.
Li Guiren knew that he was being attacked from both sides and many warriors under his command died, and their deaths were not worthy.
But their camp is like a big fat man, which will not be knocked down by two children running back and forth with a punch and a kick.
In short, the losses are there, maybe not small, but they will not lead to defeat too quickly.
The soldiers fell one by one, and after losing countless lives, a flash of fish belly white finally appeared in the east.
The sun shone on Li Guiren's face. His face was covered with blood, but he showed a cruel smile.
The sun was on his side and could dispel the fear that the night attack brought to the entire Fan Yang army camp. In this way, the army did not risk a complete collapse.
And he was finally able to organize a counterattack.
"Fight back!"
Li Guiren shouted and ordered Yiluohe to charge ahead and kill Wang Zhongsi's tribe.
Throughout the night, Yiluohe was the army that received the most attacks. The Yunzhong Army and the Tianbing Army formed a pincer attack on it from the front and back with great tacit understanding.
Because it was being attacked at night, other armies under Anlu Mountain were unable and did not dare to support it. It was extremely rare to be able to stabilize the morale of the army in the chaos and defend Anlu Mountain.
In this way, it was naturally the Yiluohe Army who suffered the greatest losses.
Li Guiren didn't know that the reason for all this was that his son boasted fiercely in front of Wang Nanran, praising Yiluohe as invincible. Wang Nannan felt that he could not put down the Anlushan rebellion without annihilating Yiluohe.
By daybreak, Li Guiren had gathered only more than 3,000 Yiluohe troops.
While he sent people to ask An Lushan to order the entire army to attack Wang Zhongsi's banner, he was making the final mobilization.
"Warriors! You are the best!"
Behind him, Dugu Wensu was still struggling to organize a line of defense to block Wang Ran's charges one after another. Warriors fell every moment, but they were indeed the best, with fine physiques and skills.
Chosen.
Even the corpse is larger than other corpses.
In comparison, the Tianbing Army was stationed in Beidu and enjoyed a privileged life; the Yunzhong Army had just changed its general, and his command was not smooth. If it had not been for a sneak attack, they would not have been able to fight against Yiluohe.
"You are the adopted sons of Prince Dongping. The money spent on each of you can support ten ordinary soldiers! Now, your adoptive father's biggest enemy is right in front of you. What should you do?!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The Yiluohe army finally broke out into a thunderous cry.
After being attacked at night, they were not defeated, but were able to fight back. Looking at the world, I am afraid that few other troops can do this.
Like a basin of water being poured out, the warriors galloped towards Wang Zhongsi's banner.
"boom!"
On the battlefield ahead, a loud noise suddenly erupted. There were galloping warriors of the Yiluo River Army, and their men and horses were blown to pieces by the explosive packs on the ground.
This was another heavy blow to their souls after they had finally mustered up the courage.
~~
Splatters of flesh and blood fell in front of his eyes. Wang Zhongsi pursed his lips and restrained his eyes. He glanced at the banner of Anlu Mountain and weighed whether he could defeat Yiluohe and whether he could defeat Anluoshan after defeating Yiluohe.
He admitted that there was a lot of luck involved in this battle. If Wang Jin did not come, he would have sent people to go around to the north of the rebel camp to set off fireworks, hoping to scare the enemy into guilt and then launch a night attack.
Fortunately, Xue Bai had made a lot of preparations, and Wang Rao miraculously arrived.
Wang Zhongsi often felt that Xue Bai was his lucky star. Without Xue Bai, he might have died in a major case a few years ago.
But even so, he didn't have much time. The saint's edict was more urgent than the war drum. He must defeat An Lushan as soon as possible in one or two days.
This was another aspect of his bad luck. If they had followed their original plan, there would have been a coordination and preparation process after Wang Nan arrived, instead of such a hasty attack.
In addition, the combat power of the Tianbing Army was indeed far inferior to that of the troops in Shuofang, Hexi, and Longyou. The northern capital was too important, which resulted in the garrison lacking combat experience.
The battle situation was not ideal, and the rebels could not be defeated overnight.
It was daybreak, and there was not much time left for Wang Zhongsi.
He endured the itchy feeling in his throat and did not cough it out. Instead, he raised his long knife high with his sore arms.
Then, he kicked the horse's belly neatly and drove the horse forward.
"Jie Shuai?"
The flag soldiers who were still waiting for Wang Zhongsi's order were stunned.
Xue Bai rushed forward and reminded: "We still have explosive bags."
"It's too slow, morale cannot be slowed down." Wang Zhongsi had phlegm or blood in his throat and his voice was not smooth, so he simply shouted: "Follow me to kill the enemy!"
Now is the time when the morale of the Heavenly Soldiers is at its highest, but when the shock brought by the explosives passes, there will no longer be any means to boost morale. He must strike while the iron is hot and achieve victory as soon as possible.
Fighter opportunities are fleeting and there is no room for hesitation.
This is the keen feeling of a famous general on the battlefield.
Xue Bai took a moment to react and then rode up.
"Kill the enemy as you please!"
The flag bearer quickly followed up with the flag raised. Then, the soldiers of the Heavenly Soldiers were so excited that they forgot about the gap in their own combat power, followed the flag, and met the Yiluohe Army who was coming towards them.
The words "Hedong Jiedu Envoy" on the flag are no longer worthy of the name, but Wang Zhongsi is still the same person when he was concurrently in charge of Hedong. He is much sicker, but more fearless.
I still remember that in the 21st year of Kaiyuan, Wang Zhongsi was transferred to Hexi and led hundreds of people to sneak attack the Tibetan army. As a result, he happened to encounter Tubo Zanpu training troops in Yubiaochuan. At that time, everyone advised Wang Zhongsi to retreat temporarily, but Wang Zhongsi
I don’t know what I was thinking, but I picked up my knife and rushed towards the Tubo army of tens of thousands of people...
That was exactly twenty years ago.
Wang Zhongsi missed his own style twenty years ago.
"Kill!"
He shouted loudly and looked at the enemy army opposite. Thinking that they were the most elite troops under An Lushan's command, his heart was filled with excitement. He liked to face the most powerful enemy.
The two sides were facing each other tit for tat, and dust and smoke were flying.
~~
At the same time, dust and smoke were also flying on the official road south of Shiling Pass.
The messenger galloped wildly on his horse, shouting loudly.
"Five hundred miles urgent!"
This is the second document to recall Wang Zhongsi, and dozens of miles away, there are third and fourth documents...