Chapter 425: Fighting An Thief (Part 2)

Pinggao County is only a few hundred miles away from Chang'an. The first battle between Li Qing'an and An Lushan was like wings. It spread throughout Chang'an and throughout Guanzhong. In particular, the Anxi Army occupied Xiaoguan and cut off the road to An Lushan into Guanzhong. This made the people of Chang'an even more excited. The neighbors beat drums and drums, and the explosion was shaking. At this moment, the Anxi Army had become the guardian god of Guanzhong people in a sense.

With the participation of the Anxi Army in the war, the rice prices in Chang'an plummeted, from the highest Douji 800 to the highest Douji 150, causing hundreds of large merchants who had garrisoned rice to lose all their money, and the people of Chang'an applauded.

On the other hand, Li Qing'an's decision to kill 3,000 prisoners triggered a big debate. Almost all the restaurants were talking about this matter. Some agreed, some opposed, and some worried that Li Qing'an's killing was too cruel, but more people firmly supported that An Lushan's army passed by, plundered cities, raped women, killed the elderly and weak, and all kinds of atrocities were outrageous. Especially Xue Hao's army was extremely cruel. The land they passed by was razed to the ground, especially the 1,300 civilians in Maling County, and nearly a thousand women died in a row. As Li Qing'an said in his letter to the court, "God will not forgive them if they do not punish their crimes."

In the Daming Palace, Li Yu slowly placed Li Qing'an's memorial on the table and breathed a sigh of relief. The Anxi Army was able to cut off Fan Yang's army's journey to the south. This was undoubtedly good news. He was in a good mood these two days, and good news came one by one. Wang Gong's counter-espionage plan worked. The Jingzhou Army withdrew from Hanzhong, and Meng Yun and Luo Zhengyi's troops were on their way back to Chang'an.

Although Li Mi advised Li Yu to take advantage of the empty opportunity in Shu and ordered Meng Yun's army to directly enter Shu and cut off Gao Xianzhi's retreat, the left prime minister Wang Gong and the Minister of War Chen Xilie firmly opposed it. Chen Xilie believed that the Guanzhong army was not trained enough. Once Gao Xianzhi returned to defend Shu, it was the time when this army was destroyed. Wang Gong also said bluntly that with Gao Xianzhi's cautious use of troops, he would never go out in full swing. There should be troops prepared in Shu. Now Chang'an is empty and should lead troops to defend Chang'an.

Li Yu finally accepted the advice of Wang Gong and Chen Xilie and ordered Meng Yun's army to return to Chang'an, but for the first time, he did not listen to Li Mi's advice.

Another good news that Li Yu received was that Li Yan came. Li Yan and Changsun Quanxu led 5,000 troops to break seven large manors in Jingyang County and Yunyang County, and defeated three plans to organize Zhuang Ding's rebellion. The mastermind Li Qi attempted suicide and was escorted back to Beijing. Among these seven vast manors, Li Yan obtained nearly 5 million stones of grain, especially in Baishuihe Manor in Yunyang County. The soldiers unexpectedly captured the wealth hidden in the 18 royal families in Chang'an, totaling 4.2 million guan, and countless gold, silver and jewelry.

This news made Li Yu ecstatic. He ordered all the money and grain to be transported back to the national treasury, and tens of thousands of hectares of land would be redistributed to self-cultivated farmers.

After reading Li Qing'an's memorial, Li Yu asked Li Qing'an for one million stone of military rations and one million stagnant of money. He approved without hesitation. He now has money and food, and as long as Li Qing'an can completely annihilate An Lushan's army for him, he will never be stingy.

Li Yu put down his pen and smiled, "I found that since Li Qing'an joined the war, the situation has changed drastically, and the development of the court is becoming more and more beneficial to the court. This Li Qing'an is my lucky star."

Seeing that Li Mi didn't say anything, Li Yu walked to the window and stretched his waist long. Looking at the blue sky, he said with confidence: "If this momentum continues, I will be able to solve the problem of land annexation in Guanzhong in another two months, and then attack Henan Prefecture. I believe that in just one year, two million self-cultivated farmers will be added and stable fiscal revenue will be brought to the court. The Tang Dynasty will re-enter the revival in my hands."

Compared to Li Yu's confidence, Li Mi felt not optimistic. He found that Li Yu had embarked on a path of no return to confront and breaking the clan. After searching homes and confiscating land again and again, he seemed to have a sense of plunder and was enjoying it. This was by no means a normal emperor's mind, but like the leader of the rebels at the bottom. Li Mi felt that Li Mi was heading a path of betrayal of relatives and separations day by day. For this reason, he persuaded Li Yu several times, but Li Yu did not argue.

"Since I have already confiscated a Princess Huo's house, I don't care about confiscating another hundred Princess Huo's mansions. In my opinion, there is no difference between the two."

This is Li Yu's answer to him.

"Master, what are you worried about?" Li Yu finally couldn't help asking first when he saw that he had not spoken.

Li Mi smiled bitterly and said, "Since Your Majesty values ​​Li Qing'an so much, will Your Majesty agree to the conditions he proposed?"

"Did the master mean that he wants to be the right prime minister?"

"Yes! Are you really going to cast him as the right prime minister?"

Li Yu nodded slowly and said with certainty: "That's true, I am indeed preparing to appoint him as the right prime minister. I know very well that my land reform cannot be separated from the strong support of the army. Although Li Qing'an is ambitious, there is one thing he, like me, opposes land annexation. From what he did in Anxi, I can see that he will definitely support my land reform. With his army's support, I will definitely be able to rebuild the Zhenguan Tang Dynasty."

Li Yu looked out the window again, looking at the white clouds in the sky, as if the white clouds in the sky were connected, building his ideal heaven: those who ploughed have their own fields and live in houses, and no more than ten people were killed a year. Everyone was polite, and they did not close their doors at night, and they did not pick up any remains on the road. The people had surplus grain in their homes, and the officials had their own grain warehouses, and they were light taxes and levies. The world admired the Tang Dynasty and gathered in Chang'an.

He let out a long sigh and said in a sad tone: "As long as I have given me three more years to manage, then, as long as he proposes to ask for the country of Tang, I am willing to give up the country to him."

Li Mi couldn't say a word. He seemed to have only really met Li Yu today, as if he had become a phoenix. In order to realize his ideal, he would rather burn his life.

After a while, Li Mi asked in a low voice: "Since Your Majesty has decided to grant him the right prime minister, what are your Majesty's plans for one step?"

Li Yu didn't look back and said coldly: "The next step is, I am ready to attack the Yang family."

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In the past few days, the morale of An Lushan's army was unstable. Li Qing'an killed 3,000 prisoners of war, which greatly shocked Fan Yang's army. Some people cursed angrily, but more people were anxious. Generally speaking, both sides would treat prisoners of war well in order to make more people surrender. However, Li Qing'an did the opposite. His aura of killing prisoners of war showed his strong confidence, and this confidence made An Lushan's soldiers afraid. Will they be opponents of the Anxi Army?

An Lushan was also depressed. He failed to compete for Xiaoguan. An Lushan finally realized the seriousness of the problem. It was not only because Li Qing'an cut off his way into Guanzhong, but also because he was backing the Yellow River. The 80,000 troops could only rely on the Yellow River to return to Hedong. But will Li Qing'an give him this opportunity to cross the river calmly? In fact, he has no way out. Only by completely defeating Li Qing'an can he return to Hedong.

Although there was such hope, An Lushan did not have any confidence. His ten thousand elite soldiers were easily wiped out. It was because of the struggle for the castle. However, according to the sergeant who fled back, the Anxi Army had only two or three hundred casualties at most, and they were fighting against each other when intercepting deserters. During the ambush, the Anxi Army did not show up until the beginning and fired with bows and arrows. A large number of soldiers died on their own tramplings, and exchanged for the entire army of 100 casualties for 10,000. He couldn't help but think of the most mysterious weapon in Li Qing'an's hand. After so many years, he didn't know what it was. It is said to be a kind of stone in the Pamir Mountains. It can explode after igniting with fire, but who can tell him where this stone is hidden in Pamir?

All the unfavorable news made An Lushan lose any confidence. He locked himself in a big tent and did not even want to appease the morale of the army.

"Master General, Mr. Gao is here." The personal soldiers' reports came from outside the tent.

An Lushan said depressedly: "Let him come in!"

As soon as the curtain was lifted, his adviser Gao Shang walked in. He went to the Yellow River to urge grain a few days ago. He came back this morning. As soon as he came back, he heard about Xue Hao's miserable defeat. In Gao Shang's opinion, victory and defeat were common among military strategists. Xue Hao, a fool, plundered all the way and delayed military operations. How could he not be defeated?

Gao Shang didn't care about defeat. What he cared about was the unstable morale of the army and An Lushan's depressed will. This was a bad thing. As soon as he entered the account, Gao Shang said, "Is the general afraid of being beaten by Li Qing'an?"

An Lushan sighed and said, "I regret not not listening to my husband's advice and stubbornly crossing the Yellow River. Now it seems that crossing the Yellow River west is a huge mistake. I am too impatient."

Gao Shang glanced at An Lushan. An Lushan had the biggest problem, which was that he could not withstand setbacks. When he encountered a setback, he was like a collapse in his whole body. No matter what happened later, Gao Shang patiently advised him: "Actually, this time it was not Li Qing'an who was very powerful. I heard that Shi Siming sent Xue Hao to seize Xiaoguan as a pioneer, and I knew he would definitely lose."

"Why?" An Lushan suddenly became energetic and asked hurriedly.

Gao Shang sighed slightly and said, "If you use troops, you should know the general. If you are going to suppress the rebellion, kill people and use Xue Hao, you are good at using Xue Hao. This man is cruel and ruthless. He will plunder the troops every battle. He will be as fierce as locusts when dealing with the people. But if he is allowed to attack thousands of miles and seize the pass, he will use the wrong person. The general can see that he burned, killed and raped all the way, and took up a journey of three days, but he will go for four days and three nights. He will massacre the city in Maling County for one night. Can such a person grab the pass? He did things wrong all the way and wasted time. But when he found that he was going to miss the military plane, he would run wildly, and he couldn't even wait for the scouts to investigate along the way. How could such a person be undefeated? If Tian Qianzhen had taken the pass, I believe that the last failure would be the Anxi Army. So I said, we were not defeated by the Anxi Army, but by ourselves."

The noble analysis made An Lushan nodded repeatedly, and his confidence gathered little by little. He slapped the table and cursed: "What a good Shi Siming, I sent him as the front army, but how he sent people, I don't even understand the minimum way to employ people!"

Gao Shang shook his head secretly and smiled bitterly: "In fact, the commander appointed Shi Siming as a general of the former army, and it was also inappropriate to employ people."

An Lushan was stunned, "What's the solution to this sir?"

"Have the general forgotten? Shi Siming will be defeated when he is 'an'!"

An Lushan suddenly realized that this An was not his An Lushan's An, but Li Qing'an's An. Shi Siming was afraid of Li Qing'an, just like a mouse was afraid of cats. Why did he forget this? He slapped his forehead and said quickly: "I know I was wrong, so I will recruit Shi Siming back immediately."

An Lushan also has a great advantage, that is, he will follow advice. As long as his advisers make sense, he will definitely follow it. Seeing that he followed the advice, Gao Shang was very relieved and smiled and said, "I have a plan that will make Li Qingan lose the advantage of geographical advantage."

An Lushan was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "As long as I fight with Li Qing'an on the plain, I will not be afraid of him."

Gao Shang narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly, "I guess Li Qing'an wanted to use defeating the general to show his reputation, rather than driving the general back to Hedong. Since that's the case, we can use Li Qing'an's ambition to annihilate Fan Yang's army and lead him out of the hole."

"I wonder how sir wants to introduce the method?"

"It's very simple. You can spread rumors in the surrounding prefectures and counties, saying that the Khitan attacked Fanyang. Remember, this rumor must not be known to the army, but can only be spread in prefectures and counties, so that the scouts of the Anxi Army will know. Then the general recalled Shi Siming and began to withdraw his troops slowly. His subordinates believed that Li Qing'an would definitely chase him."

An Lushan frowned and said, "What if he sees it through?"

Gao Shang shook his head and smiled, "As long as he wants to annihilate Fan Yang's army, even if he sees it through, he will still chase after him."

"But what if he doesn't chase him?"

"Then we will withdraw our troops back to Hedong and preserve our strength."

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The next afternoon, Shi Siming's army stationed in Anding County to the south withdrew its troops and returned north. At the same time, An Lushan's army packed up its garrison and began to evacuate the camp in the east.

The news spread like the wind to the Anxi Army base in Pinggao County. At the same time, the news came that the Khitan attacked Fanyang, and the Fanyang soldiers were in panic.

Yan Zhuang also came from Huizhou in Li Qing'an's camp. As soon as he entered the tent, he laughed and said, "General, this must be a noble idea. Let Fan Yang's army pretend to retreat and attract Anxi army to chase him."

Seeing that Li Qing'an was calculating carefully with a charcoal ruler in front of the map, Yan Zhuang continued: "I know too much about An Lushan. If he really wants to retreat, he must have ordered Shi Siming to march into Pinggao County, rather than withdrawing. This is his usual strategy, and the general should not be fooled."

Li Qing'an put down the charcoal pen in his hand, raised his head and sighed, "But no matter whether he retreated or fake retreat, I can't ignore it. This noble person saw through my thoughts. I really can't let An Lushan run away. I admit that I can't afford to gamble."

The person Yan Zhuang hated the most in his life was Gao Shang. He felt uncomfortable when he heard Li Qing'an praise Gao Shang a little, so he said, "General, don't be arrogant. I have a plan to let him shoot himself in the foot."

Li Qingan saw the displeasure in Yan Zhuang's heart, and smiled slightly and said, "Sir, please say, I'll listen carefully."

Yan Zhuang pondered for a moment and said, "The biggest taboo of Gao Shang's plan is that his rumors cannot be known to his army, otherwise it will cause panic. The general can order the scout to find a way to pass this rumors into An Lushan's camp and let him suffer the consequences."

Li Qing'an nodded and smiled, "Sir, this plan is good, but it is not strong enough. The purpose of my battle is to not only wipe out An Lushan's 90,000 troops, but also to recover Hedong and let the people of the world see the strength of the Anxi army. So no matter what strategy Gao Shang uses, I will do it step by step. Mr., maybe I don't know that I had arranged a strange army in Zhangye as early as possible."

After pausing, Li Qing'an smiled again, "But the sir's plan can be used as an auxiliary. If you play An Lushan, you will be very happy."

Yan Zhuang was silent for a moment, and suddenly laughed: "I have always had a bad relationship with Gao Shang and I have been fighting for many years, so I couldn't help but attack him when I had the chance. I was obsessed with this matter, but I forgot the serious business that I rushed to."

"Sir, please say it!"

Yan Zhuang walked to the map, but saw Li Qing'an using charcoal to draw a long black line on the northern grassland, leading to the east. He was stunned for a moment. The black line made him seem to see an army running on the grassland, and he felt enlightened.

He immediately pulled his thoughts back and pointed to the map and said, "General, please see, this time An Lushan's army entered the Guannei Road. I infer that they have two meanings. One is to enter Guanzhong to control the imperial court. If this strategy cannot be successful, then they will retreat to the second best and occupy Guannei Road. The Guannei Road has a fertile land and a dense population. It is separated from the Guanzhong Plain with a plateau and a plateau. The mountains are continuous and difficult to cross each other. An Lushan only needs to keep a small amount of troops.

, then you can occupy this fertile land, and you can have an army of 100,000 in less than three years, just like putting a big knife above Chang'an, you can enter Guanzhong at any time. Unfortunately, An Lushan did not expect the arrival of Anxi Army to shatter his dreams, but it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the general. The general took advantage of this opportunity to send an army to station in Guannei Road, and recruit troops here to lay a solid foundation for the general to dominate the Central Plains."

Li Qingan thought about it and said, "Sir, I have a good idea. For this reason, I asked the emperor for millions of dollars in each of the money and grain, just to recruit soldiers. But I want to know, Mr. An Lushan will take three years to train 100,000 soldiers, so how long will it take me?"

Yan Zhuang raised his index finger and smiled: "An Lushan is cruel and tyrannical, and the people hate him to the core, so he will take three years. As long as the general is generous and righteous, he will win the hearts of the people, it will only take one year, and the soldiers he recruits are even more than 100,000. In short, whether it is shameless or shameless, he must occupy it."

Li Qingan pondered for a while, suddenly laughed and said, "I almost forgot. I am now the comforting envoy of the Guan Nei Dao. It is my duty to appease the people and win people's hearts."

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As Fan Yang's army retreated eastward, the main force of the Anxi army also left Pinggao County and advanced eastward. Li Qing'an appointed Wu Yong as the commander general of Pinggao and led 10,000 troops to guard Xiaoguan and other important passes. Li Qing'an led 70,000 troops to advance towards Qingzhou. The army did not chase after An Lushan's army because of the attempt to retreat eastward, but instead fought steadily and took steps forward.
Chapter completed!