In the back office of the Marshal's Mansion, Shen Zhenzhen sat in front of the stove holding a small fan. She smelled the aroma coming out of the cauldron, and without caring about the heat, she quickly filled the soup and sent it to the meeting hall in front.
On the way, she met Princess Cui Caiping.
"It smells really good. Go and ask her to give me a cup."
Cui Caiping was leaning on the railing boredly. When she saw Shen Pearl, she sent her maids to stop her. Now that her food and clothing expenses were not as high as before, she was really hungry.
Shen Zhenzhu quickly put the basket behind her, lowered her head and replied, "I stewed this for my husband."
Seeing that she didn't recognize her, Cui Caiping stepped forward and reached for the basket herself. Shen Zhuzhu refused to give it to Cui Caiping, a smile appeared on Cui Caiping's lips, and she turned to touch her skirt and said, "I heard that you left a mark on your leg. , show me."
Shen Pearl's expression changed drastically, she took two steps back and said in fear: "Princess, you...how do you know?"
Cui Caiping was about to speak when she suddenly heard movement behind her. She turned around and saw Li Chu walking over with his hands behind his back, with a look of hesitation on his face.
"Are you bullying Mr. Shen again?!"
In the past, Li Chu would not have dared to scold Cui Caiping like this. At that time, Cui Caiping was born in the famous Boling Cui family and was the daughter of a Korean lady. She had a very high status. She was domineering at home and yelled at others, but he could only endure it. Now that the Yang family's status has plummeted and Cui Xun died in Chang'an, Cui Caiping's originally prominent life experience has become the most disliked thing by Li Chu, so he naturally doesn't look good.
"I don't dare."
Cui Caiping had a bad temper, so she had to endure it at this time. After doing a thousand blessings, she whispered in Shen Zhuzhen's ear: "Do you really think he loves you? You and I are in the same situation."
Shen Zhenzhu didn't understand what she meant by her words. She only saw Li Chu in her heart. After she left, she stepped forward and said: "The slave family made a tonic soup for the husband. They added white peony root, ginseng and cinnamon. It's... …”
"Give it to me."
Before Shen Pearl could finish speaking, Li Chu had already reached out, took the basket from her hand, and turned around to leave. Shen Pearl couldn't tell how frugally she saved money in order to gather the ingredients needed to make the soup, but I feel happy even looking at his back.
Over there, Li Chu took out the stew from the basket with his own hands, took a spoonful, and brought it to Duguqin's mouth.
Duguqin was his new concubine, a daughter of the Forbidden Army who joined the army as a clerk. When Tongguan fell, she and her grandfather fled with the emperor. Because she was exceptionally beautiful, Li Chu fell in love with her at first sight.
She was not in good health, and she was bedridden after traveling all the way from Lingwu to Fengxiang. She had no appetite, so she turned her head when she saw the spoon handed to her by Li Chu.
"Drink a little?" Li Chu advised softly, "I feel so sorry for you to be like this."
Duguqin shook his head, frowned slightly, and murmured: "I really want to eat the red date cake from Chang'an Fengweilou."
Li Chu was not angry because of the words "Fengweilou". He understood that she did not know the power behind Fengweilou and was just greedy. Therefore, he liked her purity even more.
He then held her hand and coaxed: "Okay, please bear with me. Master Wang will be able to regain Chang'an soon. I will take you to go boating in Longchi and eat red date cakes in Dongshi..."
~~
Chang'an, Forbidden Garden.
In the southwest corner of Longshouyuan, the Weiyang Palace of Chang'an in the Han Dynasty has been surrounded by the Forbidden Garden and has become a royal garden. This is not only the courtyard where the emperor hunts and releases falcons, and banquets with ministers, but also where the Forbidden Army is stationed.
Xue Bai climbed up to the Yongmen Gate Tower to the west of Weiyang Palace, raised his telescope and looked, he could see the battlefield between the Wei River and the Zao River.
With the sound of war drums, both sides are slowly arranging their formations. They will stop and readjust their formations every dozens of steps. Therefore, if you look at the overall situation, you will feel that the process is extremely slow. After most of the morning, there are still three hundred meters between the two sides.
Yubu.
Xue Bai was very patient and moved a chair to sit on to save energy. During each interval of drumming, he closed his eyes to rest his mind.
"Report! The rebels are out to fight!"
"What's that? A chariot?"
"It's an ox cart."
Xue Bai looked from a distance and could see that in front of Fang Guan's formation, there were densely packed chariots. He probably counted more than two thousand chariots. They were guarded by cavalry on both sides.
Presumably Fang Guan marched with thousands of cattle and sheep as rations. The cattle and carts were used as the front line, which could serve as a barrier for the rear line and break up the array here. Even if the cattle were hacked to death, it didn't matter. Anyway, they would win.
Afterwards, the troops will also be slaughtered.
"This is the fighting method of the Spring and Autumn Period."
At this time, Yan Zhenqing also hurried over after taking care of other government affairs, walked to the tower window, looked at the formation, and said: "Fang Gong has read a lot of military books."
"My father-in-law said he was talking on paper?" Xue Bai asked in a relaxed tone.
Yan Zhenqing asked, "Do you have a way to break the formation?"
"How about fire attack?"
Yan Zhenqing raised his head and looked at the flag, letting the wind blow his long beard, and murmured: "I only owe the east wind."
The wind was light at this time, blowing from the southwest.
Xue Bai said calmly: "The direction of the wind will always change... Send the order, and the rear army will prepare firewood; the cavalry on both wings will dismount and rest; then send someone to tell Wang Nan that the front army will slow down the war."
After that, he walked a few steps, passed Fan Lao, and ordered: "If you can't wait for the wind direction, using explosives will be enough to scare the ox cart. You can make arrangements."
"Here!"
Hearing this, Yan Zhenqing smoothed back his wind-blown beard and sighed: "The world has changed so fast."
Firearms have changed from scratch in just a few years. So, how effective can Fang Guan's adoption of the ancient Spring and Autumn War tactics be?
Looking at the battlefield again, Wang rarely changed from his usual brave charging tactics. He seemed to be afraid of Fang Guan's ox-cart formation and had already begun to retreat before the battle began.
It is fashionable for soldiers and horses to move forward and it is easy to mess up the formation. They often need to be adjusted, not to mention retreating. The flags in each formation are swaying. Some rear troops have not yet turned around, while the front troops have withdrawn and are crowded together; some rear troops are able to withdraw.
Soon, the front army lost support and stood alone in formation for a while, then retreated in panic, making the formation even more chaotic.
Fang Guan obviously saw the chaos in Chang'an's army and was overjoyed. He issued the order to attack, and the trumpet sounded loudly. Unfortunately, the ox cart did not rush very fast, which still gave Wang a rare opportunity to make adjustments.
After all this tossing, more than an hour passed. At noon, at the Forbidden Garden, Xue Bai ordered the cavalry on both wings to eat first, feed their horses, and wait for the opportunity.
At the front of the front, Wang Nannan was forced to the Zao River and had to face Fang Guan's ox cart, and the two sides began to fight.
Seeing this, Xue Bai summoned the messengers again and said: "We can't wait for the wind to blow..."
He is confident that he can win regardless of which direction the wind blows, but the result will be different.
"etc."
Yan Zhenqing raised his hand, feeling the wind blowing on the back of his hand, and said, "Wait a little longer, and the direction of the wind will change."
Xue Bai then stopped giving orders. Of course he believed Yan Zhenqing. Although Yan Zhenqing was Fang Guan's good friend, he was also his father-in-law. He knew that Yan Zhenqing was loyal to the country, and he was confident that he was the real good side of the Tang Dynasty.
~~
In the big tent of Fangguan, there are many wise men.
In the corner of the tent, there is also the luthier Dong Tinglan sitting, playing the famous song "Red Cliff" on the qin. The clanging sound of the qin is as powerful as swallowing up mountains and rivers, which is suitable for dubbing at this time.
Dong Tinglan had been a guest of Fang Guan for a long time. When Fang Guan was demoted because of Xue Bai, he was in despair for a while. Later, Xue Bai competed with Li Longji, and he composed music for Xue Bai and was appreciated by Li Longji. He entered the opera garden. After Li Longji
After fleeing, he also followed the team. When Li Heng's large army arrived in Lingwu, he reunited with Fang Guan and added elegance to Fang Cong.
Fang Guan had long enjoyed a reputation as a talkative man, and among his disciples were not only Dong Tinglan but also Li Yi, Song Ruosi, Wei Shaoyou, Jia Zhi and others, some of whom were closely related to Xue Bai.
Song Ruosi is a descendant of Luhun Villa in Yanshi County. After his family suffered a disaster, he sold his ancestral property and moved under the Fang Guan curtain. Now that he learned that Xue Bai was a traitor and a traitor, he suddenly realized that he was persecuted by Xue Bai at that time and became
Pioneer in accusing Xue Bai;
Although Wei Shaoyou has been an official in Shuofang for a long time, his home is located in Shengpingfang, Chang'an City, and he is a neighbor of Du Youlin. It was his slave who rescued Xue Bai from the snow at that time.
As a good neighbor, he became Xue Bai's benefactor;
Jia Zhi was a Jinshi and had a good literary reputation. He had good friendships with Gao Shi, Du Fu, Wang Wei and Li Bai, so he had a good impression of Xue Bai. Now that he heard that Xue Bai was rebellious, he also sighed with regret.
Li Yi had nothing to do with Xue Bai. He was trusted by Fang Guan. It was he who suggested that Fang Guan write to Liu Zhi in Chang'an City, inviting Liu Zhi to cooperate with others. At that time, Fang Guan said happily: "
Although the thieves are strong, how can they defeat Liu Zhi?"
Unexpectedly, Liu Zhi was killed by Xue Bai with one blow, and even when he died, there was not much splash.
It didn't matter, Li Yi quickly gave Fang Guan a second idea, which was the current bullock cart formation. At this time, seeing that Wang Jinlan was struggling to retreat, Fang Guan was sure of victory. He was very happy and said: "Thief."
Although the general is sharp, can he defeat Li Yi's clever plan?"
"boom!"
There was a loud sound in the distance, and Dong Tinglan's piano couldn't help but pause.
In the tent, a eunuch sitting next to Fang Guan stood up immediately and asked sharply: "What is this sound?!"
This eunuch's name was Xing Yan'en, and he was the adopted son of Li Fuguo. He had shared weal and woe with Li Heng in the Shaoyang Courtyard, so he was appointed as the supervisor. Since Tianbao, Li Heng had been persecuted by Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong, and he did not trust the officials in the DPRK.
, now that he has gained power, he likes to use these eunuchs who never left him.
"Don't be alarmed, supervisor." Li Yi said: "This is the explosive used by the bandit army. Even though the noise is huge, with the bullock carts in front, it can't kill many of our troops..."
"Ox cart!" Jia Zhi's expression changed.
Although he is a scholar, he knows that cattle and horses are easily frightened.
Hearing the loud rumblings one after another, everyone stood up one after another and looked towards the front line. They saw smoke rising into the sky. Xue Ni's rebels were indeed setting fire.
Wei Shaoyou raised his head and saw that the flag was flying north. At some point, the wind direction had changed and it was blowing from the south.
"It's not good!"
It was too late to say anything. The bullock cart that was originally rushing towards Xue Tui's rebel army had been turned around in shock. The cart was set on fire. The wind helped the fire. The smoke and dust immediately blinded the eyes of the soldiers, choking them to tears.
, was hit by a bullock cart again, and immediately turned around and ran away.
The soldiers in the rear didn't know what was going on. They heard the neighing of cattle and horses, saw the smoke filling the air, and the front troops retreated. They immediately fell into chaos and quickly formed a rout.
The defeat spread very quickly. Before the celebrities in the big tent could react, hundreds of thousands of Tang troops were completely defeated and fell.
"what to do?"
Xing Yanen hurriedly grabbed the bamboo pole and shouted, his voice getting shriller.
"The saint has entrusted you with a big task, Fang Xiang said quickly, what should we do now?!"
??????55.??????
Fang Guan had no military experience, so he turned to look at the staff, but they were experiencing battle for the first time and were at a loss. Only Wei Shaoyou suggested that he should send people to ask Guo Ziyi, Feng Changqing, Pugu Huai'en and others.
Will.
Fang Guan was hesitant about this. He knew that Li Heng just didn't want to use those generals, so he appointed him, the only prime minister who could control them, as commander-in-chief. If he asked them, what was the prestige of the prime minister?
Before he could hesitate for a long time, the situation became increasingly out of control.
"Look, Shuofang's army has withdrawn!"
There was a loud sound of gold ringing, and Fang Guan turned his head to look, and saw that the frontier generals had withdrawn without waiting for his order.
"Quickly retreat!"
Fang Guan shouted quickly and ordered the troops to withdraw.
Upon seeing this, Dong Tinglan quickly picked up Qin and prepared to run away, but everyone crowded out of the tent and quickly left him behind. He thought about it, but did not leave. He placed Qin on the table again and sat down.
After sitting for a while, listening to the shouts outside, he felt uneasy, so he simply continued to twist the strings and play the same song "Red Cliff".
Before the song ended, someone lifted the curtain and walked in. It was Wei Shaoyou and Jia Zhi.
The two of them did not speak, and sat down again to listen to the piano. At the end, Wei Shaoyou clapped his knees and chanted: "The two dragons fought to decide the male and female, the red cliff tower and the ship swept away the ground. The fire spread across the sky and illuminated the sea of clouds. Zhou Yu defeated Duke Cao here."
~~
"The south wind knows my wishes and blows my dreams to Xizhou."
Seeing that the wind was helping the fire, Wang Nanlan recited a poem that was both suitable for the occasion but not suitable for the occasion, and immediately pursued it himself.
Previously, Xue Bai had already asked the cavalry on both wings to conserve their strength, waiting for the pursuit at this time. They drove away the fleeing rebels, ordered the soldiers to kneel on the side of the road to surrender, and shot several generals who dared to resist.
When we chased him near Xianyang Bridge, we met Fang Guan.
"Fang Guan, where to go?!"
Wang Ran shouted loudly, but Fang Guan did not stop and dared to continue running forward. Wang Ran was not polite, he drew his bow and arrow, and shot an arrow, hitting Li Yi right behind Fang Guan.
Li Yi was pushing Fang Guan onto the bridge when an arrow hit him in the heart. He couldn't breathe and screamed quickly. The soldiers around him changed their faces in shock and quickly embraced Fang Guan and fled across the Xianyang Bridge, but Li Yi was also pushed to the bridge.
He was trampled to death.
Wang Nan saw that Fang Guan had not been shot to death. He was about to continue chasing when he encountered a northwest army coming for reinforcements, but when he saw the flag, it was Pugu Huaien.
At this time, there was a loud sound of gold ringing behind him.
Wang Nan was greatly surprised, wondering why Xue Bai asked him to withdraw his troops at this time.
He and Xue Bai had a tacit understanding. Although they had doubts, they still carried out the order to the letter and immediately took the prisoners and retreated. When they reached Zaohe River, they saw a cavalry rushing towards them at a very fast speed.
"Array up!"
Wang Rao is a general who has fought hundreds of battles. He knew at a distance that the person coming was not Yi Yu's generation, so he quickly ordered a strong formation to prepare for it. However, the opponent just wanted to raid his rear. In a moment, they had already rushed in front of him. It was actually an army of thousands of people.
The Uighur Cavalry.
Huihe was born in a bitter cold land. He was an expert in horsemanship and archery. He could lead two to four horses per person. He was extremely maneuverable. He could be said to be "moving with lightning speed, traveling as fast as flying". Wang's rare sentry horse and Xue Bai's telescope were not there.
I saw them before the battle, but they were able to rush to the battlefield quickly.
Most of these cavalry were wearing light armor, and their main weapons were bows and arrows. They "controlled the bows and horses to control the bows and horses." After arriving at the battlefield, they did not rush into each other immediately, but used bows and arrows to inflict injuries on Wang Hao's soldiers at an arrow's distance.
kill.
As a result, even before the battle began, the soldiers were already timid towards the Uighur cavalry.
At this time, Xue Bai personally led his troops to come to the rescue, covering Wang Nan's side. At the same time, the flags on the city were waving and they were shouting.
In order to prevent them from pursuing Fang Guan, the Uighur cavalry did not hesitate to fight and slowly retreated. However, someone in the army shouted: "The great army of the Tang Dynasty is nothing more than this!"
Following these words, the Uighurs whistled one after another, full of disdain.
Xue Bai stared at the big flag with a solemn expression and said nothing.
After counting the results of this battle, the Chang'an army killed more than a thousand enemies, captured 40,000 prisoners, and seized 4,000 cattle and sheep, as well as grain, grass, armor, and baggage. It was an out-and-out victory.
"Wonderful victory! Wonderful victory!"
The army cheered loudly, and Xue Bai was quickly busy taking in and reorganizing the prisoners. Soon, he met Wei Shaoyou, Jia Zhi, Dong Tinglan and others.
"The sinner pays homage to the king and congratulates him on his victory in this battle."
Xue Bai needed to recruit officials from Li Heng's side, and he had to be kind to those who surrendered, so he personally stepped forward to help them up.
Dong Tinglan was just a piano player, Wei Shaoyou, and Jia Zhi were considered important ministers on Li Heng's side. Xue Bai quickly learned about the situation from them, and the first thing he asked about was what happened to the Uighur cavalry.
Jia Zhi didn't know much about this, but Wei Shaoyou knew the details of the matter, and sighed and said: "Prince Zhong promised the gold and silk children of Chang'an and Luoyang to the Huihe people in exchange for their great help."
Hearing this, Xue Bai's face darkened.
~~
Fang Guan fled all the way, and finally stopped the rout after nightfall, gathered up the remaining soldiers, and only managed to capture several thousand people.
He was not confident that he could continue to control the generals, so he planned to escape back to Fengxiang to avoid being defeated again. However, thinking of Gao Xianzhi's experience, he hesitated, so he quickly went to the supervisor Xing Yanen to discuss it.
"Fang Gong has been famous for a long time, how could he be defeated like this in one battle?!" Xing Yanen kicked his feet and complained endlessly as soon as they met, and pointed the orchid finger in his hand at Fang Guan's face several times.
As the prime minister, Fang Guan wanted to ask for help from others, but he could only obey the eunuch and said: "Xue Ni has many treacherous plans. I didn't notice it for a while, so I asked the envoy to save him."
Xing Ting'en originally really wanted to put the responsibility for the defeat on Fang Guan, but then he thought about it, it would be good to have a good relationship with this prime minister. From now on, the inner court and the outer court would have to take care of each other, so he coughed twice and spoke
Came up with an idea.
"I know the saint well. He is the most soft-hearted and affectionate. My husband only needs to bear the thorn to plead guilty, and the saint will not punish him. But there is one thing. Who is responsible for this defeat?"
Fang Guan has always been a gentleman. He didn't know these twists and turns and remained silent.
Xing Yanen had no choice but to teach him, saying: "My husband divided the troops into three groups, and he and Li Guangjin led the northern route. But in this decisive battle, the two armies of Yang Xiwen and Liu Cao delayed the opportunity to fight and failed to kill them in time, so they were defeated.
The root cause.”
Fang Guan knew that Xing Yanen was trying to protect himself, so he had no choice but to sigh and accept.
After the discussion was completed, everyone led the remaining defeated soldiers back to Fengxiang. They could see the fleeing soldiers along the way, and Fang Guan was unable to continue to gather them.
They rushed back to Fengxiang without stopping. Xing Ting'en returned to the palace first, while Fang Guan bare his body and carried the bushes, and then went to plead guilty to Li Heng.
"What did Fang Qing say?"
Li Heng had high hopes for Fang Guan. After hearing this, he couldn't react for a long time. Then he swayed and murmured: "That's an army of 200,000 people. Fang Qing was defeated so miserably in one battle?"
It was not that he couldn't accept defeat, but he really couldn't imagine how he could be defeated so easily and so quickly. Even if he ordered an army of 200,000 to run back and forth to Chang'an, it would not be so fast.
"My lord...death penalty!"
Fang Guan fell to the ground and had nothing to say.
Li Fuguo reminded him from the side at the right time: "Your Majesty, Xing Yanen is also back. Your Majesty, would you like to listen to what he has to say?"
In fact, there is not much difference between listening and not listening. Li Heng was the commander-in-chief who faced huge resistance. Now that he failed like this, he had to swallow his tears. He staggered two steps, stepped forward, and helped him personally.
He got up Fang Guan, took the thorn sticks from Fang Guan's back, threw them aside, and pulled up Fang Guan's robe with his own hands.
"Fang Qing, don't blame yourself, I don't blame you."
After saying this, Li Heng felt a bitter taste in his mouth, his head was dizzy, and he wished he could faint.
"I just hope that you can pick up the slack and be more enterprising and enterprising."
~~
Xue Bai has been busy collecting prisoners and consolidating the results of the war.
He did not integrate all the 40,000 captured people into the army. Many of them were men recruited by Li Henggang. They were not very strong in combat, and the food and grass in Chang'an City were already in short supply, so he sent them to Hedong and Henan.
During the process of farming or military service, there is no guarantee that someone will not escape back to Helong and Shuofang. Benben should promote the benevolence of the Chang'an court to him.
There were about 13,000 elite troops. Xue Bai separated them with some of the Imperial Army and Fan Yang's soldiers, and reorganized them into a total of 60,000 people, stationed in Chang'an.
In this case, he actually needed Li Guangbi, a majestic and strict military general like Li Guangbi, to command such a force, which could be quickly transformed into combat power. Besides Li Guangbi, he was the only one in Chang'an who had a very famous Yong.
King, I can control this army, but it is very difficult to use my arms and fingers.
Apart from anything else, at present he did not dare to send Tian Chengsi to lead the battle alone.
Due to these considerations, while the grain routes between Chang'an and Hedong and Henan had not yet been cut off, Xue Bai was not in a hurry to pursue the victory. The first thing he did was to stabilize the situation.
But just over twenty days after Xianyang Bridge defeated Fangguan, there was an unexpected surprise.
"Report to King Yong that enemy troops are coming to surrender!"
This was not the first batch of generals who came to surrender. As usual, Xue Bai asked them to disarm and enter the city to pay their respects.
"The sinner Yang Xiwen, pays homage to the king."
"The sinner Liu Cao pays homage to the king."
Xue Bai said: "You two are generals under Fang Guan's command, and your official positions are not low. Why are you demoted?"
Yang Xiwen kowtowed and said: "Fang Guan only knows literature and has no knowledge of military affairs. Once he lost his master, he wanted to blame me and Liu Tong. King Zhong knows people poorly and is not a good master. We are willing to surrender to His Majesty and King Yong!"
He actually said something from his heart, he didn't care at all which of the two princes was more orthodox, he only cared about who was more worthy of trust.
Xue Bai said: "Li Heng didn't know the people well enough. He returned to He to strengthen his courage before he dared to fight. His defeat is destined by God. It's not too late for you to abandon the secret and join the light."
"I would like to serve King Yong and look up to him!"
Xue Bai accepted the surrendered general and immediately asked Feng Xiang about the situation.
Before the two fled, they had heard something about it. Li Heng had appointed Li Chu, King of Guangping, as marshal, and Guo Ziyi as deputy marshal. They gathered the scattered soldiers, regrouped, and prepared to divide the troops into three groups to attack Chang'an again.
"Which three ways?"
"The general doesn't know either," Yang Xiwen said, "I only know that Pugu Huai'en has led his troops north, and seems to be heading towards Pizhou and Fangzhou. This time, it seems that he used Li Mi's plan."
Xue Bai's eyes narrowed slightly. What he was most worried about was not Li Heng's attack on Chang'an, but cutting off Chang'an's logistics. Now, the situation he was most worried about had appeared.
But fortunately, Li Guangbi has taken the first step. I only hope that Fang Guan's defeat can delay Li Heng for more time.