Chapter 360: Recapture of Mingzhou and An Lushan's Escape to the North

Yan Zhenqing successively resisted Shi Siming in Lucheng and Pingyuan County. On the other hand, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi had formed a siege on An Lushan in Mingzhou.

Li Guangbi gradually encroached on Mingzhou from Weizhou, and fought all the way to Mingshui City.

Mingshui City is located in the east of Mingzhou, at the junction of Mingshui and Zhangshui. As long as Mingshui City is occupied, An Lushan will no longer be able to obtain food and grass support from the east.

Luo Shixin, a famous general in the early Tang Dynasty, was killed in Mingshui City.

An Lushan was well aware of the importance of Mingshui City, and hurriedly sent Tian Chengsi to lead 30,000 troops to support the rebels in Mingshui City.

Li Guangbi expected that An Lushan would send people to support him, so he only sent a small force to feint an attack on Mingshui City, while the main army bypassed Mingshui City and ambushed the rebels to the west of Mingshui City.

Tian Chengsi led 30,000 soldiers and was ambushed by Li Guangbi. The two sides fought for half a day. The government army killed 10,000 rebels and Tian Chengsi was defeated.

After his defeat, Tian Chengsi wanted to learn Liu Heita's style of fighting, making a detour halfway and unexpectedly reinforce Mingshui.

But Li Guangbi was also well versed in military tactics and intercepted Tian Chengsi again.

Tian Chengsi was defeated again, and the rebel support troops were either killed or surrendered. Tian Chengsi barely escaped and fled back to Mingzhou. Li Guangbi gathered a large army again and took down Mingshui City in three days.

At the same time, after taking Shahe, Guo Ziyi bypassed Mingzhou and captured Handan.

At this point, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi cut off An Lushan from An Shouzhong, and An Lushan was trapped in Mingzhou City.

An Lushan summoned civil and military officials to discuss matters.

At this time, the Great Yan Kingdom no longer had the glory it once had, and all the officials looked gloomy.

Yan Zhuang said: "In the current situation, we have no choice but to fight to the death. Otherwise, after the Tang army has been besieging us for two months, our army will be cut off from food and grass, and we will surely be defeated."

Hu General Sun Xiaozhe said, "We should fight to the death, but the key is how to fight. In my opinion, it is better to break out to the south, join forces with General An Shouzhong in Yecheng, and gather the strength of the entire Yan state to fight the Tang army to decide the outcome."

Gao Shang said: "Why not let General An Shouzhong go north and join forces with us, break out to the north, return to Fanyang, and occupy Fanyang to establish a separatist regime."

An Lushan listened to what they said and couldn't suppress his anger.

Because these people are now thinking about running away and have no idea of ​​turning defeat into victory.

An Lushan was silent for a long while, then said calmly, "I still have 60,000 troops in Mingzhou, and Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi only have more than 100,000 troops. We can still win this battle. Let's fight the Tang army in Mingzhou. I will personally put on armor and go into battle! In addition, send the King of Jin to Yecheng, and let An Shouzhong send troops to support Mingzhou."

The rebels looked at each other, and finally said in unison: "Yes!"

Two days later, An Lushan opened the city gates and went out of the city to fight a decisive battle with the government troops.

As the government troops planned to besiege the city, Li Guangbi stationed his troops on the north bank of the Ming River and Guo Ziyi stationed his troops on the south bank of the Ming River.

An Lushan first led his troops to attack Li Guangbi on the north bank of the Ming River. Seeing this, Guo Ziyi immediately crossed the river from the south bank to support Li Guangbi.

However, An Lushan was waiting for Guo Ziyi's support. As soon as Guo Ziyi crossed the Ming River, An Lushan's entire army turned around and surrounded Guo Ziyi from the encirclement.

The reason why An Lushan was able to accomplish this was because the soldiers under his command were all elite. He wanted to use this risky operation to first kill Guo Ziyi, the commander-in-chief of the government army's northern line.

Guo Ziyi was trapped in the encirclement and gradually lost his strength. At the critical moment, Pugu Huai'en led more than 40 people from the Pugu family and fought hard into the enemy camp to rescue Guo Ziyi.

The rebels won a great victory in one battle, killing more than 20,000 government troops.

In the military camp.

Everyone, including Guo Ziyi, was still in shock and looked depressed. Only Li Guangbi seemed to be thinking about something.

Pu Gu Huai En sighed and said, "If we fight two more battles like this, we will no longer be able to besiege the city. By then, the rebels will break through the encirclement and will surely sweep across Hebei again."

Judge Cui Yi followed up and said, "The rebels are all elite soldiers. If we besiege the city, they can break through one by one. If we don't, we won't be able to trap them to death. It's really difficult to deal with them."

Guo Ziyi nodded, and seeing that Li Guangbi was silent, he asked in confusion, "What is General Li thinking about?" Li Guangbi said, "An Lushan led the troops personally, and used a desperate tactics, which shows that their food and grass have been cut off, and they are anxious to fight."

Pu Gu Huai'en asked, "An Lushan looted so much gold, silver and grain from Luoyang, how come the food supply ran out so quickly?"

Li Guangbi said: "Gold and silver are gold and silver, and grain and grass are grain and grass. Gold and silver are expensive and easy to carry, and can be used to reward generals. Grain and grass are cheaper than gold and silver and are not easy to carry. When An Lushan escaped from Luoyang, he must have taken more gold and silver and less grain and grass. But this is a different time. Now An Lushan has been besieged for a long time, and gold and silver cannot be eaten."

Guo Ziyi agreed: "General Li is right."

Li Guangbi said: "The rebels will launch a decisive battle in a short time. It is July now. The Ming River is rising and the current is turbulent. Why don't we take advantage of the water flow?"

"What a good plan!" Guo Ziyi cleared his gloom, stood up and said, "Let's follow General Li's advice and withdraw the entire army to the south bank of the Ming River. We will build a dike upstream of the Ming River. When the rebels come out of the city to fight again, the dike will burst!"

"Yes!" The generals took the order.

At the end of July, An Lushan, who had become a trapped beast, once again led his entire army, crossed the Ming River and launched an attack on the government troops.

Both sides were staffed with experts in forming battle formations, with sword and shield soldiers in the front, archers in the middle, heavy cavalry protecting the two wings, and rangers in the back ready to attack at any time.

An Lushan was in the center and commanded the troops well. After a fierce battle, he actually forced the Tang army to retreat.

Seeing this, the commander of the front, Pugu Huai'en, took off his armor and shouted: "I will die for my country without regrets!"

After saying this, he led the Shuofang elite troops into the enemy camp and head-on resisted the rebels' advance.

The two sides were in a stalemate for a while.

At this time, the government troops upstream of the Mingshui River broke the dike, and the Mingshui River, which was more than two meters high, swept down and instantly submerged the rear army of the rebels, causing the rebels to be defeated.

Upon seeing this, Li Guangbi personally led his light cavalry into the rebel camp and called on his soldiers to kill the enemy and make meritorious deeds.

When An Lushan saw the sweeping Ming River, he felt as if he was hollowed out in an instant and became listless.

Tian Chengsi on the side said: "We have tried our best, but now the situation is hopeless. I hope Your Majesty can make plans early!"

Yan Zhuang said: "If we break out and head south now and join forces with General An Shouzhong, we will still have the strength to fight."

An Lushan closed his eyes and thought, tears falling down, and said: "Retreat, head north."

An Lushan led his cronies to sneak away to the north, while the soldiers at the front were unaware of it and continued to fight to the death with the government troops.

The battle lasted for another hour before the rebel vanguard realized that An Lushan had escaped. Their morale collapsed and they either fled or surrendered.

Guo Ziyi led a large army into Mingzhou City and searched the entire city but could not find An Lushan.

Pu Gu Huai En pleaded, "General, please give me two hundred cavalrymen, and I am willing to lead the troops to capture An Lushan!"

Guo Ziyi said: "I will give you a thousand cavalrymen, and send an order to all the counties in Hebei to search for An Lushan!"

"Yes!" The generals took the order.

An Lushan fled, and only An Shouzhong was left in southern Hebei.

An Shouzhong had previously learned that Mingzhou was in danger, so he sent Yin Ziqi with 30,000 troops to provide support.

When Gao Xianzhi learned that An Shouzhong had divided his troops, he sent Ma Lin and Li Sheng to lead troops to intercept Yin Ziqi, while at the same time launching a further siege on An Shouzhong.

An Shouzhong was short of 30,000 soldiers and had no rear army to rely on. Fearing that food and grass would be cut off, he retreated to Yecheng.

Gao Xianzhi led a large army and trapped An Shouzhong in Yecheng.

(End of this chapter)