Chapter 358: Memorial to Nephew
Hebei.

When Shi Siming learned that An Lushan was trapped in Mingzhou, he was extremely anxious. After thinking for a while, he made a decision and wrote a letter of surrender to Yan Zhenqing.

When Yan Zhenqing received Shi Siming's letter of surrender, he was skeptical, but considering that Shi Siming's surrender was indeed beneficial to the overall situation, he finally chose to accept it and sent two thousand people out of the city from the north gate to accept Shi Siming's surrender.

But as soon as the two thousand men left the city gate, Shi Siming led his elite cavalry to launch a fierce attack on them.

Yan Zhenqing had anticipated this situation and immediately used heavy crossbows to cover the surrendering government troops entering the city.

But Shi Siming also anticipated that Yan Zhenqing knew he was pretending to surrender, so while he was pretending to surrender, he sent three other groups of troops to attack the east, west and south gates of Lucheng at the same time.

In order to prevent Shi Siming's false surrender, Yan Zhenqing deployed heavy troops at the north gate of Lucheng. As a result, the rebels attacked from the other three gates. The government troops were unable to resist and Lucheng was about to fall.

Yan Zhenqing realized that he had been tricked and decided to abandon the city to preserve his manpower. He ordered his troops to break out from the east of the city, all the way to Pingyuan County, and garrison in Pingyuan City.

Shi Siming captured Lucheng and killed more than 10,000 government troops. He then continued to advance eastward and besieged Pingyuan City, intending to use the strategy of "besieging Wei to save Zhao" and let Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi send troops to rescue Yan Zhenqing and ease the pressure on An Lushan.

In the plain city.

Deputy General Li Zejiao silently presented Shi Siming's letter of surrender to Yan Zhenqing.

Yan Zhenqing took it and took a look.

In the letter of persuasion for surrender, Shi Siming said that Liu Zhengchen's rebellion in Yuyang had been suppressed, and he had captured Yan Zhenqing's son. If Yan Zhenqing surrendered, he would send Yan Zhenqing's son back and ask An Lushan to confer a title of nobility and appoint Yan Zhenqing as prime minister. If Yan Zhenqing did not surrender, he would kill Yan Zhenqing's son.

Yan Zhenqing's hands couldn't stop shaking as he looked at the letter of surrender. The nine-foot tall man's eyes turned red again.

Before, Shi Siming also tried to persuade Yan Gaoqing to surrender in this way, but Yan Gaoqing refused to surrender. So Shi Siming chopped off the head of Yan Gaoqing's youngest son Yan Jiming in front of Yan Gaoqing at the foot of Zhending City in Changshan.

Based on personal grudges, Yan Zhenqing and Shi Siming were irreconcilable, but for the sake of the overall interests of the court, he had accepted Shi Siming's surrender in Lucheng with a glimmer of hope. But now Shi Siming actually used his son to threaten him to surrender.

Yan Zhenqing angrily threw Shi Siming's letter of persuasion to surrender on the ground, and with red eyes, he asked in a trembling voice: "Where is the rebel envoy?"

"Outside the door." Li Ze replied.

Upon hearing this, Yan Zhenqing drew his sword and rushed out.

Li Zejiao hurriedly chased after him and said, "General, when two armies are fighting, they don't kill envoys. Besides, Master Yan is still in their hands..."

Li Zejiao did not continue speaking because Yan Zhenqing had already chopped off the rebel envoy's head.

Yan Zhenqing came to the top of the city wall with a knife in one hand and the head of the rebel envoy in the other. He held up the head of the rebel envoy and said to Shi Siming below the city: "The Yan family is full of loyal and brave people. How can we be coerced by the rebels! Rebel, when you kill my child, you must let me watch!"

Seeing that Yan Zhenqing was also so stubborn, Shi Siming temporarily led his troops to retreat.

Yan Zhenqing watched Shi Siming retreat and returned to the lobby, unable to hold back his tears.

At this time, Yan Zhenqing's confidant Xu Hao walked in holding a head.

However, this head did not belong to his son Yan Po, because only bones were left.

"What is this?" Yan Zhenqing asked.

Xu Hao said: "This is Ji Ming's head."

Ji Ming, also known as Yan Ji Ming, is the son of Yan Gaoqing and the nephew of Yan Zhenqing.

After Changshan and Luoyang were recovered, Yan Zhenqing sent people to search for the bodies of Yan Gaoqing's family.

Yan Zhenqing held the head in his hands and confirmed that it was Yan Jiming's head. He choked up and asked, "Where are the others?" Xu Hao said, "There were more than 30 members of Yan Zhongjie's family. Their bodies were gone. Only Jiming's head was found."

Yan Zhenqing stroked Yan Jiming's head and couldn't help crying in grief and anger.

After a long time, Yan Zhenqing put Yan Jiming's head on the table, took out paper and pen, placed them next to Yan Jiming's head, and wrote "A Memorial to My Nephew and a Gift to Doctor Zanshan Ji Ming" with tears and indignation.

"In the first year of Ji De... I received the grace of heaven and moved my pasture to Heguan. Quan Mingbi and I once again captured Changshan and brought your head and coffin back with me. I am deeply saddened by your thoughts and look deeply saddened. I am waiting for the day when you will pass away... Your soul is aware and does not regret being away for so long. Alas, please enjoy..."

……

The next day.

Yan Zhenqing did not remain silent in grief for long, he put on his armor and went up to the city because Shi Siming launched another attack.

Yan Zhenqing knew that An Lushan was going to rebel, so he fortified Pingyuan City long ago.

Today, Pingyuan City can be said to be one of the most solid cities in Hebei.

As soon as Shi Siming's army arrived at the city, Yan Zhenqing immediately ordered the catapults to throw stones.

The soldiers led by Shi Siming were all elite. They approached the city wall despite the casualties caused by the government troops' stone-pelting, and set up ladders and siege vehicles one after another.

The government troops defending the city then fired bows and crossbows and used burning wood to attack the rebels attacking the city, destroying their ladders and siege vehicles.

But this time Shi Siming came prepared and was very determined to take Pingyuan City, so he adopted a rotation strategy to attack the city in turns.

When the first batch of siege troops was blocked, they would switch to the second batch, the third batch...

The rebel siege team was also very brave. After several rotations, the rebels used battering rams to create a gap in the city wall.

Yan Zhenqing immediately led his men to block the gap, leading the way outside the gap, killing every rebel who rushed over.

While blocking the gap, Yan Zhenqing also ordered people to repair the city wall with adobe bricks made when digging the moat.

Then, a dramatic scene appeared on the battlefield. Yan Zhenqing led his men to fight bravely in the front, with blood flowing like a river, while the engineers in the back were repairing the fortifications.

The battle lasted for two hours, but Shi Siming still failed to capture Pingyuan City and had to lead his troops back.

It was already dusk, and the blood-red setting sun enveloped Pingyuan City. Yan Zhenqing looked around and saw corpses everywhere. The living soldiers were all looking at him. The bright red blood and the setting sun complemented each other, as if the whole world had turned blood red.

Li Zejiao, the deputy general, stepped forward and said, "General, if Shi Siming cannot take Pingyuan City today, he will definitely come back the next day. We should immediately ask for help from Marshal Guo and Marshal Li Jie."

Yan Zhenqing wiped the blood off his knife and asked, "Isn't Helan Jinming, the governor of Beihai, here?"

"No." Li Zejiao shook his head. "You are willing to give him the position of Hebei Recruiting Envoy, but he won't come. I guess he wants to wait until you and Shi Siming are both defeated, and then he will sit back and reap the benefits. If the government army wins, he will come to take credit, and if the government army loses, he will join the rebels."

Yan Zhenqing sighed and said, "Let him do what he wants. Send our battle report to General Guo and General Li Jie, but don't ask for help. They are now surrounding An Lushan. The longer we can hold out, the more danger An Lushan will face."

"Yes." Li Zejiao accepted the order and said worriedly, "But the rebels are very strong. I don't know if we can hold on."

Yan Zhenqing said: "To attack a city, we need three times as many troops as the defenders. I see that Shi Siming's army is less than twice as large as ours. I have often exchanged tactics with Li Jieshuai before, and I have learned something from him. I believe we can hold on."

The morale of the soldiers is closely related to their commander. When the generals heard Yan Zhenqing's confidence, their confidence also increased greatly.

(End of this chapter)