Chapter 226: 40,000 Volunteer Army

Suzong of the Tang Dynasty... an imperial title that was both familiar and unfamiliar to Li Shimin.

After thinking about it for a moment, I remembered that this seemed to be the one who founded the Martial Arts Temple...

However, Li Shimin looked calm and coughed lightly:

"I don't know what Marquis Wu thought when he saw this."

Naturally, Li Shimin didn't believe in Fang Guan's ability.

Li Shimin had a simple and crude set of criteria for judging Xuanzong's court:

The closer a minister is to Xuanzong, the greater the probability that he is a scheming figure.

Famous generals come from border towns, and loyal and good ministers are in Changshan, Pingyuan County, Hedong, and Luoyang, but there is no such thing as Chang'an.

Therefore, Fang Guan's ability really needs to be questioned.

"Incompetent people can only win the laughter of Lord Wu."

Fang Xuanling felt that Zhuge Wuhou was probably just helpless, but he was a little unconfident about this rightful owner:

"This Fang Guan's surname is also Fang, he can't..."

Du Ruhui joked about himself and comforted:

"Brother Xuanling, why worry? As long as our children and grandchildren don't rebel, they will have their wealth and leisure."

The truth is this, Fang Xuanling can only let it go.

And even if Fang Guan is his descendant, it is much better than any royal tradition or Li family drama, right?

Although this idea was a bit disrespectful, Fang Xuanling found that her mentality was much calmer.

Everyone nodded at Du Ruhui's sigh. With Du Ruhui's son rebelling after his early death, everyone's standards for their sons were already very low.

After Hou Junji realized how lucky he was, he became more respectful and humbly asked Li Jing for his opinion on this battle situation.

Chang'an must be defeated, but how to defeat it is a problem.

Li Jing believed that Cui Qianyou's style of play could be replicated in the Guanzhong Plain. After all, Chang'an was the capital of the Tang Dynasty.

"The rebels captured Chang'an and Dingran felt arrogant. He pretended to be defeated and lured the rebels. The border troops surrounded him and forced him to abandon the city. It should be a good strategy."

Hou Junji agreed, but then asked a question: "Who will do it?"

After killing three generals in a row, who else can lead the army? Who dares to lead the army?

[Fang Guan is the dark history that Suzong did not want to recall.

Suzong, who ascended the throne in Lingwu, quickly built up a fortune. Reinforcements from Hexi, Longyou, and Anxi arrived, with nearly 60,000 combatable troops.

How to use this hard-earned wealth to gain prestige became Suzong's top priority.

Fang Guan fascinated Suzong with his outstanding eloquence. Not only did he give Fang Guan deliberate preferential treatment, but he also required Fang Guan to participate in decision-making on important military matters.

So Fang Guan's short, legendary, and absurd months began.

Fang Guan’s promotion route is as follows:

June's registered residence in Chang'an is unknown.

In July, he pursued Xuanzong officials to the prime minister.

In August, he convinced Suzong with his eloquence and his position became more and more stable.

In September, he was assigned by Xuanzong to conquer Xijing and defend Putong.

In October, he invited the general marshal of the world's soldiers and horses to lead his troops to recapture the two capitals. Suzong agreed and awarded him a festival.

It only took Fang Guan four months to go from a leisurely minister to being the governor of two towns and the marshal of the world's troops.

Moreover, Suzong also granted Fang Guan the right to open the shogunate. Deng Jingshan, Song Ruosi, Jia Zhi, Liu Zhi and other people who had never fought in the war entered Fang Guan's shogunate.

At that time, someone advised Fang Guan: The rebels had elites who fell into the river, so they should not be careless.

Fang Guanrui commented: Although there are many people dragging down the river, can they be like me, Liu Zhi? 】

"This Li Heng deserves to be the son of Xuanzong."

Zhang Fei thought that with the new emperor, he should calm down a bit.

But unfortunately not.

Liu Bei was a little unsure:

"This Tang Dynasty official prime minister, so casual?"

Don't look at achievements or abilities. In Xuanzong's case, it was because of the pursuit of holy masters, while in Suzong's case, it was because of eloquence.

This reminded Liu Bei of a person:

"The favor of that generation will be envied by Zhao Kuo even after he is resurrected."

Zhao Kuo was promoted exceptionally because, in addition to his eloquence, he also benefited from the favor of his father, Zhao She, a famous general.

And what does this Fangguan have? It all depends on one mouth.

Then Liu Bei turned to his military advisor and smiled:

"In comparison, I treated Kong Ming very poorly."

It was just a joke, Kong Ming also laughed and responded:

"If my lord already has 60,000 elite soldiers when I come out of the mountain, why worry about destroying the thieves?"

Fa Zheng looked at the harmony between his lord and Kong Ming and was very envious.

But more importantly, he was convinced by Zhuge Liang, and he said at this time:

"When Kongming came out of the mountain, his strategy of "Longzhong Dui" was famous all over the world."

"This Fang Guan only knows vulgar language, how can he compare to Kong Ming?"

The literal translation of Fang Guan's words is: Is Yiluohe a Qiu?

There is no strategy and no way to deal with it.

He is called the Grand Marshal of the World's Soldiers and Horses, but he speaks like an idle man in the city.

Such a person still falsely calls himself Zhuge?

He was not so crazy when no one in Yizhou was convinced.

[The battle of Chen Taoxie kicked off with this ridiculous prelude.

Fang Guan led 50,000 elite troops into three groups and sent them to Chang'an!

Li Guangjin led the Northern Army from Fengtian, and Fang Guan and Liu Guizhe led the Chinese Army from Wugong.

The two armies totaled 40,000 people as the vanguard, and another 10,000 Southern troops, led by Yang Xiwen, set out from Yishou.

The rebels were facing An Shouzhong, one of the four fierce generals under An Lushan's tent, with only 10,000 men.

The two sides met Chen Taoxie.

There are no detailed records in the history books, but An Shouzhong must have been dumbfounded when he saw Tang Jun.

No one can imagine that Fang Guan is still a retro styler.

With the support of Li Heng, Fang Guan built military chariots according to the history books of the Spring and Autumn Period as the trump card of the Tang army.

Using military chariots pulled by two thousand oxen to charge directly into the enemy formation, and then using infantry and cavalry to kill, wouldn't it be easy to capture?

This is Fang Guan's genius idea.

Contrary to his wishes, An Shouzhong did not stand there obediently and be charged by the old oxen.

He ordered the soldiers to hit the shields with swords and make loud noises to intimidate the ox carts and slow them down.

Then he ordered the light cavalry to approach and throw torches into the ox cart formation. For a time, the ox cart formation was in chaos, and the panicked oxen began to charge back and trample on the Tang army.

An Shouzhong seized the opportunity to lead the army to charge, and it took only half a day to completely defeat the 40,000 Tang army.

The Southern Army, which was in support, entered the battlefield a day later. At this time, An Shouzhong was so victorious that the Tang army could hardly fight back.

Yang Xiwen, the commander of the Southern Army, was straightforward. Seeing that he could not win, he surrendered directly.

At this point, Fang Guan's battle directly destroyed Li Heng's patchwork wealth, forcing Li Heng to seek help from the Huihe in order to quell the rebellion.

Chen Taoxie is also known as Chen Tao. Du Fu, who passed by here and planned to surrender to Emperor Suzong of Tang, was also captured by the rebels.

Later, Du Fu wrote "Sadness for Chen Tao" to lament this battle:

In the first month of winter, the blood of ten good families in the counties turned into water in the Chen Tao Lake.

The wilderness was vast and the sky was clear without the sound of war, and 40,000 righteous soldiers died on the same day. 】

"In the first month of winter, the good families in the counties..." Du Ruhui felt that the pen in his hand was so heavy.

He once thought that the great Tang Dynasty, which had been prosperous for a hundred years, should have collapsed in a blazing manner.

But he didn't expect that it was the emperor who was incompetent, the treacherous minister who misled the country, and the traitor who was greedy.

At this time, the last bit of wealth of the prosperous Tang Dynasty was stabbed by a person who could only talk big.

The three towns of Hexi, Longyou and Anxi, with 130,000 elite soldiers, should have been the warriors of the Tang Dynasty who were supposed to deter hundreds of countries and run rampant on the border.

They were completely destroyed by a forced order from Tongguan and Chen Taoxie's retro tactics.

They should have been the most elite soldiers of the three towns guarding the border, but they died without dignity.

"How can these dead dogs be entrusted with important matters!" Hou Junji couldn't help but express his feelings.

He didn't forget that the Anxi Jiedu Town was located in Gaochang, and whose achievement was the destruction of Gaochang?

Of course, it was Hou Junji who decided to capture it with the foresight of His Majesty!

In this way, Anxi had some origins with him, but these elite soldiers who could serve as a bridgehead for attacking Central Asia were gone?

The ministers were excited, and Li Shimin seemed to be too calm in comparison.

"Not enough to accomplish anything!"

This was Li Shimin's evaluation.

Wei Zheng followed suit and said:

"Not only is he unable to accomplish anything? If he still has self-awareness, he should hang himself to save face!"

Li Shimin looked over and said quietly:

"I am talking about this Suzong."

Wei Zheng was speechless.

Then Li Shimin turned his head and looked forward:

"This Suzong is also a man of great ambitions but little talent. He and Fang Guan have a mutual understanding."

Wei Zheng did not dare to say anything for the time being, although he felt that what His Majesty said was true.

Moreover, Li Shimin's thinking was even more far-sighted:

"Once this army is gone, Suzong will have no one to rely on, and the Tang military governors will remain..."

"The Hedong army led by Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi?"

Then it suddenly dawned on him:

"No wonder Suzong wanted to seek help from the Huihe."

"But..."

Li Shimin paced back and forth and tapped his head:

"But why did the Huihe help Suzong instead of helping An Lushan?"

"Holding the emperor to rule the world?"

Du Ruhui couldn't stand this increasingly terrifying speculation and said:

"Perhaps the Huihe also misses the power of the Tang..."

Li Shimin smiled:

"Ke Ming, these people are afraid of the power of the Tang army."

"It's hard to remember the benevolence of the Tang."

In Jie Li Khan and all the defeated opponents in the past, Li Shimin saw this truth very clearly.

...

"This Du Gongbu is really ill-fated..."

Kong Ming was worried about his friend.

Well... He looked at Du Fu hundreds of years later through the light screen.

And this Du Fu visited the ancient sites in Chengdu hundreds of years later to pay tribute to him.

It was a pity that they could not meet.

Liu Bei also resonated with this poet.

"And he has a heart that worries about the country and the people, which is a thousand times better than Fang Guan."

He was in a high position in the Ministry of Works and could understand the suffering of the people. This was what Liu Bei admired most.

As for Fang Guan, Xu Shu felt that he was really embarrassed.

"It's all thanks to the people who are looking for swords on the boat at this moment, but they have achieved the false reputation of the rebels!"

He did not envy Fang Guan's rapid promotion, but only felt that it was another disaster for the people of the Tang Dynasty.

Zhao Yun calculated on the side:

"After this battle, the strength of the Tang army is similar to that of the rebels, and slightly less."

"And the rebels occupy the two capitals of the Tang Dynasty, which must be rescued by the Tang army. The rebels' officers and soldiers will have a better chance of attacking and defending."

And why did Zhao Yun feel familiar with Guangmu's casual mention?

Unable to suppress the rebellion, he asked the Hu people for help. If the Hu people win, they will be too powerful to be eliminated. If they lose, they will definitely take out their anger on Emperor Suzong.

The Anshi Rebellion is becoming more and more confusing.

The Tang Dynasty looks dead to Zhao Yun no matter how he looks at it.

How can it last another hundred years?

The prelude to Xiangji Temple.