Chapter 384: Each Has His Own Agenda
Gao Xiuyan knew that he had no chance of defeating Li Guangbi now, and if he was defeated he would most likely be killed by Shi Siming. If he surrendered to the government army, he would be a rebel general, and he had not gotten along with Li Heng when they were in Longyou, so he would not get anything good.

To put it another way, even if he could escape, he felt that as a lazy person who was used to robbing, he could not get used to the life of a government soldier, so he ran to the desert in one breath.

Gao Xiuyan's running away confused Cai Xide.

Cai Xide also wanted to escape, but compared to Gao Xiuyan, he was not ruthless enough and could not leave his family in Fan Yang, so he could only lead his troops to retreat to Weizhou, hoping to gain Shi Siming's forgiveness by defending Juyongguan and Baibiguan and save his family.

Li Guangbi easily recaptured Yunzhou without bloodshed and marched into Weizhou.

Shi Siming was furious when he received Cai Xide's military report.

He originally wanted to kill Cai Xide, but thinking that the situation was urgent, killing Cai Xide would only make his situation more difficult, so he suppressed his anger, praised Cai Xide, and conferred the title of King Yi on Cai Xide.

……

Pinglu area.

Yan Zhenqing was the chief commander, Wang Xuanzhi was the deputy commander, Dong Qin was the vanguard, Hou Xiyi, Tian Shengong, Li Huaiyu and others were the minor generals. They led 8,000 elite troops, crossed the Bohai Sea and established a base in Pinglu.

Yan Zhenqing had a very clear understanding of his own position. He knew that in terms of military talent, he was not a first-class commander. Li Heng sent him to the enemy's rear, but he did not intend for him to use his army to attack the rebels' rear.

Therefore, after entering Pinglu, Yan Zhenqing first took root in Liaodong City, defending the city while sending people to persuade it to surrender.

Yan Zhenqing was quite prestigious, and everyone could see clearly the current situation: the rebels had suffered repeated defeats and were now trapped. Therefore, as soon as Yan Zhenqing surrendered, the anti-rebel army in Pinglu, which had been suppressed by the rebels, regained its spirits and joined the government army one after another.

When Shi Siming learned that Yan Zhenqing had reached Pinglu, he was horrified and quickly sent Li Huaixian to Pinglu to resist Yan Zhenqing.

Shi Siming's original first strategy was to resist the attack of the government army, but Li Heng's three-pronged attack trapped him, and no matter how brave his army was, it would lose sight of one thing while focusing on another.

Moreover, this has further lowered the morale of the rebels. In order to stabilize the internal situation, they urgently need a victory to boost morale.

So, Shi Siming decided to take the initiative.

Shi Siming divided his troops into two groups. One group, with Shi Chaoyi as the marshal, marched out of Boling and attacked Raoyang. The other group was led by Shi Siming himself to attack Dingzhou, also known as Hengyang.

In the previous battle of Hengyang, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi defeated Shi Siming. Now Hengyang is garrisoned by Pugu Huai'en.

Next to Hengyang, there is a county called Tang County, which is located in Puyin Xing. There is a pass in Puyin Xing called Daomaguan. From Daomaguan, you can go directly to Lingqiu, Weizhou.

If Shi Siming could occupy Tang County and open up Puyin Pass, he could attack Li Guangbi and threaten Hedong.

Tang County was so important that Shi Siming knew that Pugu Huai'en would never give up easily, so he asked Zhou Zhi to lead an advance force of 8,000 to raid Tang County.

The garrison of Tang County consisted of only 3,000 soldiers and was completely unable to stop the attack of the rebels. Zhou Zhi took Tang County and advanced westward to Daomaguan.

When Pugu Huai'en learned that Tang County had fallen and Daomaguan was in danger, he did not think much and immediately led his troops to support Tang County.

But this was the opportunity Shi Siming was waiting for.

As soon as Pugu Huai'en retook Tang County, Shi Siming led a large army to besiege it.

Logically speaking, Tang County, as an important gateway, should be a strong military town, but this was not the case in the Tang Dynasty.

Because the Tang Dynasty had always only thought about attacking and never thought about defense, Tang County did not have a strong city defense.

When Pugu Huai'en saw Shi Siming's army surrounding him, he realized that he had been tricked by Shi Siming.

Pugu Huai'en climbed up the city wall and looked at the huge rebel army. He was very confused and said to his son Pugu Yan: "Mr. Guo has led the army north to Boling. Shi Siming did not transfer his heavy troops to defend Boling, but took the initiative to attack and take Tang County. What is his intention?"

Pugu Yan said, "Shi Siming is very proud of his military talent and does not want to defend and wait for death, so he took the initiative to attack and seek opportunities." Pugu Huai'en sighed and said, "This man uses troops unpredictably and every time he does it is unexpected. Tang County is small and the city defense is weak and difficult to defend. We can only break out before the rebels besiege the city."

After saying this, he walked down the city wall with a spear in hand.

Pugu Yan followed.

Shi Siming attacked from the north gate, and Pugu Huai'en led his troops to break out from the south gate, preparing to retreat to Hengyang.

But Shi Siming had anticipated this and ordered Zhou Zhi to go back to Hengyang and attack Pugu Huai'en halfway.

Puguo Huai'en did not expect that Shi Siming had this trick up his sleeve. He was defeated again and fled. Relying on his bravery, he retreated all the way to Zhending, Changshan.

Shi Siming stopped pursuing and after occupying Hengyang, he cleared out the government troops in Dingzhou and occupied Dingzhou.

But just as Shi Siming occupied Dingzhou, news came from Shi Chaoyi.

Shi Chaoyi was defeated in Boling and fled back to Mancheng in a panic.

This was bad news, but for Shi Siming, it was two pieces of bad news.

Because Shi Chaoyi was injured but not dead.

Shi Siming himself led the main force to attack Pugu Huai'en, and let Shi Chaoyi lead a detachment to attack Guo Ziyi's main force, which actually implied a conspiracy.

Shi Siming once secretly calculated that if Shi Chaoyi could stop Guo Ziyi, it would mean that Shi Chaoyi was the son of destiny, and he could let Shi Chaoyi succeed to the throne. If Shi Chaoyi could not stop Guo Ziyi, then Shi Chaoyi was not worthy of inheriting his position.

Since he is not worthy of the inheritance, it would be best if he died in battle so that he doesn't have to do it himself.

The reason why Shi Siming thought this way was not because he believed in destiny, nor because he wanted to select the most capable son to inherit his position. He simply did not like Shi Chaoyi and liked his other son Shi Chaoqing more.

Compared with Shi Siming's cruelty, tyranny, bloodlust and looting, Shi Chaoyi was modest and prudent, cared for his soldiers and won the hearts of the army. He was also sympathetic to the people and often advised Shi Siming to refrain from looting.

Shi Siming did not feel lucky to have such a son. Instead, he felt annoyed and fearful.

Therefore, after learning that Shi Chaoyi was defeated but escaped unscathed, Shi Siming was furious. He handed Dingzhou over to Zhou Zhi and took his men to Mancheng to meet Shi Chaoyi.

As soon as he arrived in Mancheng, Shi Siming arrested Shi Chaoyi and wanted to execute him on the charge of losing the war.

When the rebel generals learned that Shi Siming wanted to kill Shi Chaoyi, they all tried to dissuade him.

The first person to advise was Zhang Zhizhong.

Zhang Zhizhong said: "Your Majesty, although King Huai was defeated, it is understandable. Guo Ziyi is powerful, and it is not easy for King Huai to hold Boling for more than ten days. I hope Your Majesty will show leniency and let King Huai make up for his crime!"

Zhang Tongru replied, "Victory and defeat are common in the military, let alone the weak defeating the strong. If King Huai is killed, the army will probably lose its morale."

Tian Chengsi also said: "Cai Xide retreated without fighting, but was named King Yi. King Huai fought desperately, was injured and retreated, but was killed. I am worried that others will say that Your Majesty did not dare to kill the general, but killed the son."

Zhang Zhizhong's advice was really to protect Shi Chaoyi, while Zhang Tongru wanted to muddy the waters. As for Tian Chengsi, he not only hoped that Shi Siming would not kill Shi Chaoyi, but also hoped that Shi Chaoyi would kill Shi Siming in return, because only when Shi Siming died could they, Shi Chaoyi's predecessors, take control of the power.

When it comes to fighting a war, Shi Siming is one of the best in the world today, but when it comes to political talent, he is slightly lacking.

Therefore, Shi Siming basically did not realize that those who advised him had their own ulterior motives. He just felt that Shi Chaoyi did win the support of the army, which made him even more wary.

However, although he was wary, he couldn't go against everyone's wishes, so he had to send people to release Shi Chaoyi first.

(End of this chapter)