Chapter 431 Mingtang

"I recognize Li Xin, who stayed in Dongdu, and I know that the head is real."

Helan Jinming held it in for a long time. When he arrived at his residence at nightfall, he closed the door and immediately discussed with Helan Zhijia what he had seen today.

"The way I look at Yan Gaoqing, Lu Yi's head must be real. Could it be that Luoyang City was captured by the rebels?"

Although this was a question, the two brothers actually already had the answer in their hearts, and their respect for the court was also slightly shaken.

After a moment of silence, Helan Jinming suddenly said to himself in a firm tone: "There is still Tongguan. There is no way the rebels can break through Tongguan."

"One thing is certain, Xue Bai has been lying, and the situation is not as good as he said." Helan Zhijia said: "Let's see, sooner or later he won't be able to hide it."

Helan Jinming was originally frowning and worrying about state affairs. After hearing what he said, he turned his mind to blaming Xue Bai, and his psychological burden suddenly became much lighter.

"Each county guard is taking risks to serve the country, and they all follow the orders of a young man. If he misjudges the situation, it doesn't matter if we lose our lives, but I am afraid that the overall situation will be missed."

"It was the Yang Party that forced An Lushan to rebel from the very beginning..."

With such complaints, it was difficult for the Helan brothers to work together towards Xue Bai, and inevitably they had a mentality of resisting exclusion and looking at jokes.

The next day, when they saw Xue Bai standing at the top of the city seriously discussing the specific matters of defending the city with Yan Gaoqing, they looked on coldly and thought, "Shu Zi really thinks he is the leader of the traitor alliance, how can he be so good? That is Yan Gaoqing."

In order to cling to the noble concubine, you are willing to be shy and listen to a young man's random orders." When they saw Xue Bai encouraging the soldiers, they thought, "Shu Zi is pretending again, and sooner or later everyone will betray their relatives and leave."

Sometimes they would think that Pingyuan City had been captured and Xue Bai was completely defeated. The pleasure this brought them actually outweighed their fear of the rebels.

They hoped that more soldiers could see through Xue Bai's hypocrisy and incompetence, wake up, and recommend Helan Jinming as the leader of the alliance and order Hebei.

Finally, before Pingyuan City could repair its defenses, a large group of rebels advanced toward Pingyuan City from far and near, accompanied by dust and smoke, and surrounded it.

The movement seemed to come from the sky. It was very noisy and never stopped. It was like putting thousands of troops in a box and covering their ears.

"Report, there are rebels coming from the east!"

"There are rebels in the north!"

Helan Jinming hurriedly rode his horse on top of the city and arrived at the northeast corner of the city wall. He looked around and his heart sank.

The rebel forces were much larger than he expected. He originally thought that if he was defeated in the end, he could withdraw from Pingyuan City, but now they were surrounded on all sides, and even the retreat was blocked.

"Who is coming?"

Helan Jinming rode to the southwest of the city and found that the banner of the rebel general was very close.

The flag was billowing in the wind. He tried his best to keep his eyes wide open for a while, and finally saw clearly that it was a big "History".

"Shi...it's not Shi Siming who's here, right?"

Helan Jinming took a step back in horror and rubbed his eyes.

As the governor of Beihai, he had some knowledge of Anlushan and Shi Siming. He believed that Anlushan's talent was more reflected in the word "deception". In his early years, he pleased Zhang Shougui, and later he gained the favor of the saint.

He could often coax the leaders of various tribes into running around. But when it came to marching and fighting, Shi Siming was a more terrifying person than An Lushan.

Just look at a small incident in Shi Siming's youth to know his talent. He was once captured by Xi Ren's territory, so he pretended to be an envoy of the Tang Dynasty and made King Xi believe him with his magnanimity. Later, he even took Xi people with him

A famous general of the People's Republic of China went to pay homage to the Emperor. After arriving at Pinglu, he took him and three hundred elite Xi people as prisoners and sacrificed him. Not only did he save his life, but he also made a great contribution.

Seeing such a rebel general leading an army to kill in front of him, Helan Jinming hurried to Xue Bai and asked: "Did you expect this situation? Can the imperial court really have reinforcements?!"

This time Xue Bai did not blame Helan Jinming for shaking the morale of the army, because Helan Jinming was not the only one who was panicking at this time. The generals of Pingyuan County were temporarily persuaded by Yan Gaoqing to join the imperial court, and their determination was not firm enough.

Shi Siming only revealed his last name, but the morale of the defenders was already shaken.

However, Xue Bai actually showed joy on his face, raised his hand and pointed, and said loudly: "Did you see it? The rebels are fleeing back to Fan Yang!"

Helan Jinming was stunned. If he hadn't personally confirmed the head of Li Jin who was left behind in Luoyang, he would have almost believed Xue Bai's.

"The rebels' food route was cut off, and they encountered Gao Xianzhi's army in Luoyang. With no way to advance or retreat, Anlu Mountain had no other choice but to turn back to Fanyang to consolidate itself." Xue Bai said loudly: "It's just that we blocked it.

They blocked the way for the rebels to return north, so they were anxious. First they used fake human heads as a threat to deceive the city gates into opening. Now they even sent the generals out. All we have to do is close the door and hold on, and then the rebels will collapse and everyone will be defeated.

If you have meritorious service, you will be given the title of wife and son, and it goes without saying that you will be generously rewarded!"

…

This was the first night of the siege by Shi Siming's army, and the morale of Pingyuan soldiers was relatively stable for the time being.

In the middle of the night, Xue Bai went down to the top of the city. He didn't meet Yan Gaoqing, so he walked to the government office. When he entered, Yan Quanming came out and said in a low voice: "Master is in the backyard."

"how?"

"Wu Jiu will know after seeing it."

Xue Bai then followed Yan Quanming quietly. When he arrived, he saw that there were only a few candles lit in the hall, and the light was dim. Yan Gaoqing was sitting in front of the candlelight, with his back looking a little rickety, and piles of straw beside him.

Amidst the rustling sounds, Xue Bai stepped forward and saw Yan Gaoqing wrapping the thatch one by one.

"My father-in-law, what is this?"

Yan Gaoqing pointed to the three boxes in front of him and said, "Give them a body."

The heads of Li Jin, Lu Yi, and Jiang Qing were placed in the box. If this matter spread, the soldiers would know that these three people were really dead.

Before Xue Bai could speak, Yan Gaoqing added: "Don't worry, I didn't lie to anyone. No one else will know about this. I did it quietly."

"Why bother?"

"Luoyang fell so quickly. You don't need to look at it to know that there must be a lot of officials in the city who have abandoned the city and fled, and there are even more people who have turned themselves into thieves. How many people are loyal and upright when the country is in danger? I have no choice but to deny it.

They didn't even dare to erect a tombstone for them, so they buried them hastily. How guilty did they feel? They could only dig up their whole bodies with their own hands."

Xue Bai was very busy when the enemy was facing him, but he still said: "Let me help."

After that, he also sat down, helped tie up a thatched body, picked up the needle and thread, and pierced the hole by the candlelight.

"Luoyang is lost, and Shi Siming's troops are approaching the city. I'm afraid your plan has been defeated, right?" Yan Gaoqing asked.

The light was too dark and the thread was difficult to thread. Xue Bai put the end of the thread in his mouth and wet it, continued to pass through the eye of the needle, and said: "I arranged an ambush on the way from Yanshi to Luoyang, just outside the White Horse Temple.

Not far away is the official road, where the rebels must pass. I thought I could stop the rebels from attacking Luoyang and buy time, but now it seems that things are not going well."

After threading the needle and thread, he opened a wooden box and took out Lu Yi's head. Lu Yi's eyes looked very bright, and his expression of angrily scolding the traitor after being bound was still lifelike. He reached out and flicked it, trying to make Lu Yi shut up.

eyes, but the eyelids quickly opened again.

Xue Bai then began to sew, carefully sewing the head and the straw man together.

"Thanks to these years of preparation, my private army should not be weak. It has attracted many veterans from Longyou and Jiannan, and led the refugees to practice. There are 1,652 people, and the equipment is also well-equipped. Maybe.

It was because there was no good general to command, and maybe there were other problems. But I have to admit that Luoyang fell much faster than I expected. To answer my father-in-law's question just now, the first plan did fail."

Yan Gaoqing asked: "Then why are you still here? Why don't you retreat to Tumen Pass?"

"The first plan failed. There are several other plans." Xue Bai said, "And they must come to support you."

He didn't want Yan Gaoqing to fall into an isolated and helpless situation, which seemed to have quickly become a strange obsession. Therefore, he even enjoyed the time of sitting side by side with Yan Gaoqing sewing the corpse.

"Any other plans?"

"For example, when Dugu Wensu, Li Shiyu contacted An Lushan's officials who stayed in the rear, and got several good responses. Fan Yang's Liujun Jia Xun, and Pinglu Army General Liu Kenu all sent people to contact them and expressed their opinions.

I am willing to lead Fan Yang and Yu Yang to submit."

For such a big event, Xue Bai actually spoke in a normal tone, while he sewed the head, knotted the needle, and arranged Lu Yi's hair.

Yan Gaoqing was a little excited after hearing this, and said: "In this case, the rebellion may be put down as soon as possible?"

"It's hard to say how many people they can win over if they want to surrender. The key depends on whether the imperial court can restore its prestige." Xue Bai said: "It's like the situation we faced in the plains. As long as the imperial court fights for a breath, our military morale will decline.

It makes a big difference.”

With that said, he took out the head of Li Xin who was left behind in Luoyang and placed it in front of Yan Gaoqing, letting him feel Li Xin's anger and unwillingness.

"well."

Xue Bai threaded the needle again to attract the money, but failed to pass it through at once, so he said a little irritably.

"So it has long been said that the saint is hopelessly fatuous. How can the rebellion be quelled unless this kind of emperor is replaced?"

Yan Gaoqing stopped what he was doing, feeling the novelty of criticizing Chengyu.

That is to say, he was surrounded by enemy troops in an isolated city, and he didn't know whether he could survive, so he didn't say anything to Xue Bai about it.

"My father-in-law doesn't believe it now, but sooner or later he will understand that the world needs a new king to have any hope."

~~

An Lushan himself did not expect to capture Luoyang City so quickly.

With hesitation, he waited more than ten days after Tian Chengsi captured Luoyang before he finally entered the city. By this time, Gao Xianzhi had already rushed to Shaanxi County, and almost all the resisting forces in Luoyang City had been eliminated.

As for the surrendered officials, they had already been taken to Longmen to visit Anlu Mountain, and this time they were leading the way in front of the car.

"Da Xi Xun."

An official in green robe turned around and saw that he was actually Da Xixun, the former minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. However, he had completely lost the official prestige and etiquette of the past. He had gone through many vicissitudes of life, and his expression showed loneliness.

An Lushan was very happy. With a move of his fat hand, he was summoned to the side of the car. The two of them used to be under Li Linfu's sect and were quite familiar with each other. An Lushan would give gifts to Da Xixun every time he came to Beijing.

"Is it really you? Why are you wearing this green robe?"

"Greetings to Mr. Fu." Da Xixun did not forget to bow first, and with a flattering smile on his face, he said: "When I return to Mr. Fu, I was demoted a few years ago. First, I was demoted to Xianzhou Biejia to manage the relationship.
To be continued...