During the Tianbao period of Tang Dynasty, Anshi Rebellion broke out.
During this period, countless loyal ministers and generals emerged to defend their country. They used their lives to defend the dignity of the Tang Dynasty, and Zhang Xun was one of them.
Everyone knows the fierce battle of defense of Suiyang, but rarely knows that the Yongqiu defense battle, which was also organized by him, is no less tragic than the Suiyang defense battle.
Zhang Xun, from Hedong, Puzhou. He was a Jinshi in the late Kaiyuan period, and later served as the Prince Tongshi Sheren in the middle of Tianbao , and soon became the magistrate of Qinghe County. During this period, he helped the poor and the needy, selected talents and made outstanding achievements. After the term of office expires, he will return to Beijing to rest as a employed person.
is in the late Tianbao period, and the government power is controlled by Prime Minister Yang Guozhong . During Zhang Xun's tenure, someone advised him to walk through Yang Guozhong's back door in exchange for an opportunity to remain an official in Beijing. But Zhang Xun rejected the person's suggestion. He said disdainfully: "Now that the court is in a bad position, why should I become an official in the court?" After the sentence
was passed to Yang Guozhong's ears, he was demoted to Zhenyuan County and served as the county magistrate here.
Soon after, the Anshi Rebellion broke out, facing the fierce rebels. Zhang Xun's immediate superior and Qiao County prefect Yang Wanshi took the lead in surrendering to An Lushan , and at the same time forced Zhang Xun to surrender with him.
Faced with Yang Wanshi's seller behavior, Zhang Xun rose up in anger and led the people and soldiers of the county to raise the banner of resisting An Lushan.
At the same time, the county magistrate of Yongqiu near Zhenyuan saw the rebels coming in full force and was preparing to surrender to An Lushan, but this move was opposed by local people and officials. Linghu Chao was extremely angry and directly ordered the arrest of more than 100 rebels.
Not long after, the rebels fought at the city of Yongqiu. Linghu Chao, who was eager to surrender, immediately opened the city gate and surrendered to the rebels. After Linghu Chao surrendered, there was a strife in the city. More than 100 people who were originally detained by him took the opportunity to escape and immediately closed the city gate and sent someone to ask Zhang Xun to help them guard the city.
In February of the fifteenth year of Tianbao (756 AD), Zhang Xun entered Yongqiu City. After killing Linghu Chao's wife and children, he immediately stepped up the construction of defensive fortifications. A few days later, Linghu Chao indeed led the rebels to attack, but was easily repelled by Zhang Xun.
But Linghu Chao would not give up, and soon made a comeback. This time he called two helpers, namely Yan General Li Huaixian and Yang Chaozong, and three led a 40,000 elite army and arrived at the city of Yongqiu in a mighty manner.
Seeing the dense army below, the generals in the city were very scared and had the idea of giving up. At this critical moment, Zhang Xun's words gave the soldiers guarding the city great confidence and courage. He said: "The rebels attacked this time are elite troops, and they will inevitably despise us psychologically. If we take advantage of this, unexpectedly and suddenly attack, the enemy will definitely retreat. Only by letting their troops be defeated can the city be defended."
"The thief knows the reality of the city and has the intention to be despised. Now that they are unintentional, they can be shocked and defeated. Taking advantage of it, they will inevitably be defeated."
Then, he arranged a thousand people to defend on the city gate, and he personally led a thousand people out of the city gate and killed them. Facing an enemy that was several times higher than his own, Zhang Xun led the way. Before the Yan army could react, a large number of troops fell down. Looking at Zhang Xun who was rushing harder and fiercer, the rebels began to retreat and ordered the withdrawal.
The next day, a rebel who was silly and lost learned his lesson. They equipped heavy weapon for siege, prepared several large trenchers, surrounded Yongqiu City like making dumplings, and then all the stones were released, and countless huge rocks poured into the city. In an instant, the tall city towers and the houses in the city turned into ruins. Immediately afterwards, the rebels rushed towards the city wall like a tide.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Xun did not retreat, but ordered the soldiers to set up wooden fences on the city wall to block the enemy. At the same time, he ordered people to move out the prepared artemisia , pour grease, ignite it with fire, and then throw it towards the enemy troops climbing the city wall. The enemy was caught off guard and was burned miserably for a while, and they stopped attacking one after another.
Taking advantage of this gap, Zhang Xun took the defense as the attack and led his troops to attack the rebels outside the city. Facing Zhang Xun and others who were in a strong sense, the enemy chose to avoid the edge for the time being and lead the army to retreat.
Although the enemy has temporarily withdrawn, Zhang Xun's life is not good, because for a long time after that, the rebels will come to attack from time to time. Zhang Xun's tenacity also surprised the rebels because they found that this person seemed to be unable to use up his energy. Every time he faced their large-scale attack, Zhang Xun would miraculously defend him and defeat them.
That's it, both sides come and guard it, and this confrontation lasted for more than 60 days. In the past two months, the two sides have experienced more than 300 wars of all sizes and sizes. Zhang Xun blocked the 40,000 army led by Linghu Chao with only thousands of remaining soldiers. Zhang Xun's tenacious spirit made countless rebels frightened.
Finally, Linghu Chao could not hold on anymore and he had to order the withdrawal of troops. Just as they retreated, Zhang Xun once again seized the opportunity and took the opportunity to explode the rebels' chrysanthemums, killing the retreating rebels to the point of abandoning their armor, and capturing more than 2,000 people. Although the crisis was temporarily resolved, Zhang Xun did not dare to relax for a moment and took the opportunity to strengthen the fortifications and prepare to welcome the rebels' attack.
As expected, as Zhang Xun expected, the rebels did not give up in the lonely city of Yongqiu.
In May, Linghu Chao led his troops to attack again. But the result is still the same as before. Faced with their successive attacks, the small Yongqiu City was as solid as a rock and still remained motionless. After a long time, his morale was depressed, and Linghu Chao was helpless. He had no choice but to play the emotional card with Zhang Xun.
Since he and Zhang Xun are old friends, they invited Zhang Xun to meet him. After Zhang Xun arrived as promised, Linghu Chao said to him: "The matter has reached this point. What are you trying to be so persistent in the dangerous city?"
"The world is gone, and you can stick to the dangerous city, who do you want to do?" - " Zizhi Tongjian " Volume 218
Zhang Xun looked at him contemptuously and said unwillingly: "You usually show loyalty and righteousness to others. What is loyalty and righteousness today?"
"You usually promise loyalty and righteousness to others. What is loyalty and righteousness today?" ——Volume 218
Zhang Xun's words made Linghu Chao speechless! He understood that this matter could not be resolved peacefully.
So he ordered a large army to attack Yongqiu. , but after more than 40 days of attack, it was still in vain. ! Linghu Chao was so anxious that he was about to curse. However, just when he was at a loss, the news coming from the front couldn't help but cheer him up. It turned out that the capital of the Tang Dynasty , the Tang Dynasty , had been captured, and the high-ranking emperor was forced to go into exile to Bashu. The news of
made Linghu Chao ecstatic. He felt that the matter had finally seen the dawn. so he wrote a book and sent someone to Zhang Xun to persuade him to surrender again.
When this letter was passed to the soldiers, the city was suddenly panicked and the soldiers were completely out of fighting spirit. At this time, six generals found Zhang Xun and said to him: "Yongqiu's military strength is weak, and the man resists for a long time. Now we don't even know whether the emperor is dead or alive. Instead of doing so, it's better to surrender to the Yan army."
Zhang Xun dragged his tired body, looked at them, nodded helplessly, as if he agreed to his subordinate's suggestion.
The next day, he summoned all the civil and military officials, hung the portrait of Xuanzong in the hall, and led them to worship together. Just when everyone thought this was the last time to worship the emperor, Zhang Xun suddenly shouted, ordered the arrest of the six generals, criticized them, and ordered the beheading.
This situation has completely shut up those who are ready to surrender; it has also made the crowd who are unwilling to surrender and their morale is even more intense.
Although Zhang Xun was determined to guard the city, after a long time, they faced a serious problem without obtaining logistics supplies: the most important "arrow" for defending the city was gone, which is the biggest problem at present.Faced with well-equipped rebels, they could not resist the rebels' attack without arrows. It was a matter of time before the city was lost.
Just when everyone was at a loss, Zhang Xun was already confident.
On a month of dark and windy night, the Yan army, who was patrolling the night, suddenly discovered that countless men in black appeared on the head of Yongqiu City. I saw them ease down from the city wall, silently. This scene scared the soldiers on the night watch. They thought that Zhang Xun had sent troops to attack him, so they immediately reported it to Linghu Chao.
Linghu Chaojue, who received the news, didn't bother to sleep, and immediately ordered to alert him and summoned all the archers to make them face the walls of Yongqiu.
In an instant, countless dense rain of arrows rushed towards the head of Yongqiu City. Each of the men in black on the city was hit by several arrows, and their bodies were like hedgehog . However, not long after, Linghu Chao discovered that these men in black were motionless in the face of the impact of sharp arrows, without any sound.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that the men in black on the city wall were not real people, but scarecrows.
When he learned that he was trapped, he immediately ordered the soldiers to stop shooting, but it was too late. Because during this period, a large number of arrow feathers shot on the scarecrow. When Zhang Xun pulled all the scarecrows up, after counting them, he actually got more than 100,000 arrows.
This is the famous "bride man borrows arrows" in history.
Linghu Chao was played with by Zhang Xun like this. He didn't say anything about it all night, but he also caught 100,000 arrows. While cursing Zhang Xun's treacherousness, he secretly swore that he would keep his eyes open from now on and never be properly treated by Zhang Xun.
But although he thought very well, God played him again.
A few days later, one night was spent, and Zhang Xun used his old tricks again, but this time he replaced the scarecrow with real-person . When more than 500 black-clothed soldiers he sent came down from the city again, Linghu Chao sneered and said to his subordinates: "This time he must be a scarecrow again, don't worry!"
But, this time he was wrong! When these more than 500 people rushed into the Yan army camp like a tiger and cut the unprepared Yan army into overturning the horse, Linghu Chao realized that he was being tricked by Zhang Xun again. But at this time he didn't care about being angry, because Zhang Xun had already come with the main force, Linghu Chao was shocked and hurriedly abandoned the camp and fled. He was chased by Zhang Xun behind for more than ten miles before he returned to the city safely.
was played with by Zhang Xun twice in a row. Linghu Chao was furious and then launched a large-scale attack on the city. During this period, he discovered that a Tang general named Lei Wanchun was extremely brave, so he brought a team of archers to the city and deliberately called out to Lei Wanchun to attract his attention. Lei Wanchun didn't know that it was a plan. Just as he was about to talk to Linghu Chao, the archers downstairs were ready to go. Under Linghu Chao's orders, countless bows and arrows attacked him. Lei Wanchun couldn't dodge and was hit by several arrows, but he only got six arrows on his face.
But according to the "Zizhi Tongjian", the powerful general named Lei Wanchun in stood upright and stood still after several arrows. Linghu Chao downstairs of was also shocked by this scene. He thought he had met a scarecrow again, so he sent someone to get closer and confirm it again. Only after receiving a definite answer did he dispel his doubts.
Then, Linghu Chao said to Zhang Xun who came here again: "I just saw General Lei, and I realized that the Tang army was indeed disciplined and everyone was killed. I admire him very much. However, Li Tang 's energy has been exhausted, so how can we change the way of heaven?"
"I will be satisfied with the order of General Lei, but it is like the way of heaven!" ——"Zizhi Tongjian" Volume 218
In the face of Linghu Chao's clamor, Zhang Xun replied to him in only nine short words: "You don't know the way of heaven, how can you know the way of heaven?" means that you surrender to the rebels and don't even have the minimum human ethics, how can you know the way of heaven!
Then, Zhang Xun took advantage of the rebels' unpreparedness and led his army to fight again, defeating Linghu Chao and beheading more than a hundred.
Linghu Chao, who suffered consecutive defeats, was finally defeated by Zhang Xun this time. He understood that if he continued to waste, Yongqiu still couldn't conquer it, so he led his troops to retreat to Chenliu for rest and did not dare to come out for several months.
In October, Linghu Chao, who had been defeated repeatedly, led his troops to invade again. Zhang Zhang went out of the city to fight, defeated the rebels again, and killed thousands of people, Linghu Chao was defeated and fled again.
After being defeated by Zhang Xun several times, Linghu Chao had to sigh! Zhang Xun is undoubtedly the most terrifying opponent he has ever seen in his life. This person's perseverance, determination, and tenacity are rare in the world!
Seeing that Linghu Chao could not even defeat a small Yongqiu, Li Tingwang, the governor of Henan of Yan Dynasty, had to take action personally and attack Yongqiu with Linghu Chao, but he still failed to defeat him for a long time. had no choice but to change his strategy and decided to use the "siege but not attack" method to trap the people in Yongqiu City to death.
Li Tingwang first ordered people to build another new city outside Yongqiu City to isolate Yongqiu's grain road; then ordered General Yang Chaozong to lead 20,000 soldiers to attack Ningling , attempting to cut off Zhang Xun's retreat.
The importance of Ningling is self-evident to Yongqiu, because once Ningling is captured, Yongqiu will fall into the dilemma of being attacked from all sides, and it is only a matter of time before it falls . Therefore, Zhang Xun felt that rather than being passively beaten like this, it would be better to take the initiative to withdraw from Ningling to defend it in order to crush the rebels' attempt.
In early December, Zhang Xun led the army into Ningling. At the same time, Suiyang prefect Xu Yuan also arrived in Ningling and fought side by side with Zhang Xun . Because Sui Yang is only forty miles away from Ningling, once Ningling is trapped, Sui Yang will definitely follow in the footsteps. The lips are gone and the teeth are cold, so Xu Yuan will never sit and watch Ning Ling ignore it.
But both of them would not have thought that a bigger difficulty was waiting for them.
The first month of the second month of the De period of Emperor Suzong, he had just killed his father An Lushan and became emperor. In order to open up the important land of Tang Cao's wealth, he prepared to march into the Lianghuai River. and Suiyang is the only way to advance to Jianghuai. Therefore, he appointed General Yin Ziqi as the governor of Henan and ordered him to conquer Suiyang.
As soon as Yin Ziqi took office, in order to quickly capture Suiyang, immediately assembled an army of 130,000, and pointed directly at Suiyang. Xu Yuan, who received the news from , immediately asked Zhang Xun for help, and Zhang Xun did not disappoint him, and immediately rushed to Suiyang with only three thousand people.
At this time, Xu Yuan only had 3,800 people. The combined troops of Zhang Xun and Xu Yuan were only 6,800, and had less than 7,000 troops to fight Yin Ziqi's 130,000 troops, which was tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg!
But this world will always be full of miracles, and Zhang Xun will create an amazing miracle!
The next Battle of Suiyang will be more tragic, tragic and thrilling than the previous battle of Yongqiu!
