Chapter 595 Behind the War

Early in the morning, a white pigeon hovered from the sky and landed on the Pigeon Tower in Heyin County. The soldiers guarding the tower saw a red pigeon tube tied to the pigeon legs, so they hurriedly untied the Pigeon tube and ran out of Heyin City.

There was a large camp outside Heyin City, with about 10,000 people. This was Li Qing'an's bodyguard. During peacetime, he had thousands of personal soldiers on patrols, but during wartime, his bodyguards had as many as tens of thousands, forming an independent guard called the Hu Ben Guard. This was Li Qing'an's security guard, including scouts, cavalry, and Modao Army, with a total of 10,000 people. For several consecutive days, Li Qing'an was stationed in Heyin County. He was always paying attention to the war in Xiangzhou. Of course, as a commander who commanded the world's army, he would not worry about the outcome of Xiangzhou. Whether it was defending or losing Xiangzhou, it did not matter to the overall situation. Guo Ziyi was not An Lushan's opponent. He did not have enough strength, and he was Li Qing'an.

In fact, Li Qingan did not care about Cheng Qianli's victory or defeat, nor did he care about the gains and losses of Xiangzhou. He only cares about one thing now, that is, whether An Lushan will send troops as he expected, which is whether he can control the overall situation. Once An Lushan really sent troops to Xiangzhou, Li Qingan felt that he had begun to grasp An Lushan's pulse. His every move and every step of his attempt would be within his expectations.

Li Qingan did not respond very actively to An Lushan's fierce rebellion at the beginning, but only defended negatively. On the one hand, it was because his Anxi affairs were not handled and he did not have the strength or energy to curb An Lushan's rebellion.

On the other hand, as a time traveler, although he knew a few years ago that the Anshi Rebellion would break out sooner or later, he did not want to stop An Lushan's rebellion. This was not just for his personal self-interest, but for his knowledge that the Tang Dynasty system was corrupt and land annexation. The Tang Dynasty society needed a social turmoil and impact like the An Lushan's rebellion. It could reshuffle interests, impact the thoughts of scholars, and make those in power reflect, completely reform, cut off rotten meat, and revitalize the Tang Dynasty.

Extinguishing the fire of An Lushan's rebellion too early will only allow those in power to continue to lie on the soft pustules in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and continue to erode day by day, and eventually even the roots will rot.

Everything has its pros and cons. The key is to control a "degree" and prevent the intensity of the Anshi Rebellion from expanding. Finally, it will destroy the entire society as in history, becoming the root cause of the decline of the Han civilization for thousands of years. Opium is a poison and a timely medicine. The key is how to use it?

Sometimes Li Qingan also felt that he was gambling, and he was betting on his wealth, life and the country of the Tang Dynasty.

Just as dawn, Li Qing'an habitually came to the Yellow River embankment to observe the freezing of the Yellow River. In the past two days, he had to see it almost every day. This was his interest. The old boatman said that there were seven days left and the Yellow River would be completely frozen. He seemed to be like verifying the words of the old boatman. He had to see it every day. This has almost become an interesting thing for him. Today, the ice on the river surface extended several miles to the heart of the river. It is difficult for ordinary people to see the water.

The river surface was shaking, but Li Qing'an's eyesight was different from ordinary people. He could still see clearly that the river was slow in the distance. He could even make a quick judgment. The river surface was frozen for two and a half miles, so the other side should be the same. The water surface of the Yellow River was ten miles wide and half frozen. It was only two days! It seemed that the old boatman had room for room for at most five days, and the Yellow River should be completely frozen. "Don't go up the first time the Yellow River was frozen, and the Dragon King would definitely be invited by the Dragon King." He remembered this sentence.

"General!" A shout came from afar behind him. Li Qingan looked back and saw a cavalry running quickly. The cavalry turned over and dismounted, and saluted forward and said, "The latest information of the Hebei Road Intelligence Branch!"

The report soldier presented a red pigeon tube to Li Qing'an. Li Qing'an broke the tube and shook a volume of intelligence from it. The information was written in Anxi's special password. He handed it to the personal guard behind him. A personal guard quickly translated the information and said to Li Qing'an: "Report to the general, the information is that An Lushan personally led 200,000 troops south. The vanguard had arrived in Beizhou and echoed Cai Xide's army. A total of 300,000 troops were besieging Xiangzhou, but Cheng Qianli still refused to withdraw his troops."

Li Qing'an's pupils shrank to a line, and he guessed it. An Lushan's real purpose was to attack Xiangzhou. Li Qing'an sneered secretly. In fact, An Lushan had a mistake. He should attack Hedong first and leave Xiangzhou to Guo Ziyi. In this way, Li Qing'an's Henan army would not be able to go north. Can Cheng Qianli's tens of thousands of troops still capture his Youzhou nest?

When An Lushan captured Xiangzhou, it was equivalent to directly confronting Li Qing'an's army head-on, without any buffer zone.

Thinking of this, Li Qing'an turned around and ordered: "Go back to the camp and set off and return to Luoyang!"

He turned over and headed towards the camp. As soon as he returned to the gate of the camp, he saw Li Guangbi flying from afar, with a worried look on his face. Li Qingan stopped the war horse. When Li Guangbi approached, he smiled and said, "Is there something big happening when I came so anxiously and panic?"

Li Guangbi clasped his fists and said, "Does the general know about Xiangzhou?"

"Well! Are you talking about An Lushan's 200,000 troops heading south? I just learned about it."

At this time, Li Guangbi admired Li Qing'an and was overwhelmed. Li Qing'an's grasp of the overall situation was probably no one in the world could do so. An Lushan's army had indeed gone south. What's next? Li Guangbi was more concerned about their corresponding strategies.

"General, An Lushan's army heads south, how should we deal with it?"

The National People's Congress has a kind of dependence. When Li Qing'an predicted the enemy's actions step by step, Li Guangbi gradually lost his ability to think independently and began to rely on Li Qing'an's arrangements. However, Li Qing'an hoped that he could stand alone. Li Qing'an didn't say much, but just smiled and said, "I'm just coming to the front line for inspection. No matter the battle, you are the commander of the Eastern Route Army. How to arrange it, whether it is aid or not, it's up to you to decide. I'm going to return to Luoyang immediately."

Li Guangbi was stunned. When Li Qing'an was about to enter the gate, he suddenly woke up and hurriedly said, "General, please stay!"

Li Qingan stopped and turned around and smiled, "Is General Li still a matter of what happened?"

Li Guangbi quickly stepped forward and said, "General, I have two small requests."

"Say it! What do you want?"

"Bei Zhi knows that the Hebei Intelligence Branch is currently in Xiangzhou. Please ask the general to allow Bei Zhi to contact them. Bei Zhi wants to get more and faster intelligence from them."

"Can!"

Li Qingan agreed without hesitation, "Say the second request!"

"The second request is that Bei Zhi wants to help Cheng Qianli defend the city."

"Oh? How are you going to help him?" Li Qingan asked with interest.

"I want to give them a new weapon!"

Li Qing'an looked at Li Guangbi deeply. He saw a long-term idea in Li Guangbi's eyes, and nodded and said, "Yes, I'll be sure of the second request."

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Cai Xide's 30,000 vanguards had already reached Xiangzhou. They did not immediately siege the city, but stationed thirty miles away, waiting for the main force to arrive. Although An Lushan's army was far from here, the arrival of the vanguard army still blew a gust of cold wind to the city of Xiangzhou.

The city of Xiangzhou suddenly became nervous. The soldiers began to patrol the city day and night. Cheng Qianli organized 20,000 troops out of the city to dig out the moat. The moat had frozen and lost its function as a moat. However, Cheng Qianli was still unwilling to give up. He tried to smash the ice, but he gave up quickly. Not long after the section of Dongcheng was smashed, it was frozen again. The entire Anyang River was frozen, and it was just a waste of effort to smash it open temporarily.

Cheng Qianli was in a hurry and ordered the civilians to transport bundles of arrows and huge rocks to the city, blocking four gates with huge rocks, and the moat was frozen, and An Lushan's large siege ram could directly attack the city gate, which was very unfavorable to them.

The city defense was in chaos, and the residents in the city were no longer calm. Xiangzhou City is the second largest city in Hebei Road after Youzhou. There were originally 80,000 households and nearly 500,000 residents in the city. However, after several large-scale immigration and escape, there are only 20,000 households, about 100,000 people left. Despite this, 100,000 people are still a considerable number, including all three religions and all. In addition, Xiangzhou City is vast, so it is not easy to manage these 100,000 people well.

There is a wine shop in the center of Xiangzhou City called Guanzhong wine shop. It covers a huge area. The wine shop is four floors high and can accommodate thousands of guests to eat at the same time. In addition, the front building and back yard are also used as an inn. It has always been a prosperous business and is one of the best in Xiangzhou City.

But as the situation was tense, the business of this Guanzhong diner began to become increasingly lighter, especially its inn, which had almost no customers. There were so many empty houses in Xiangzhou City that they didn’t have any money to live there, so who would pay for the inn?

Although the business is not good, the restaurant still opens in the early morning and only closes at night, which is in sharp contrast to the closing of many restaurants. There are still some people who have fun in time, but the number has been greatly reduced.

That morning, the sun shook away the fog, and the warm sunlight shone on Anyang City. Everyone went out. Feeling the rare winter sun, the door of the Guanzhong diner opened as usual. Several guys were cleaning the shop in vain. The fat shopkeeper squinted his eyes and lay on the counter, enjoying the warmth of winter. His short and obese body complemented the fat cat snoring on the wall.

The shopkeeper was Zhang Debao. He had been in this Guanzhong diner for thirty years and was enthusiastic and helpful. He knew him in tens of thousands of households around him. At this time, Zhang Debao's eyes slowly became round from a crack. He stared at the sky outside the gate, and saw a gray pigeon hovering down in the sky, passing over his restaurant.

Zhang Debao immediately stood up, stumbled into the back door, and knocked over several beds that had been washed and were being hung up and dried. "You bastards! Can't you guys put it on the bed?"

He didn't care to hold him accountable, so he ran to the backyard. Through a side door, the inn was the inn, and ran all the way to the backyard of the inn. This place was locked for many years, and it was a restricted area for the wine shop and the inn. No guest was allowed to enter. At this time, Zhang Debao had already heard the cooing sound of pigeons in the yard. He hurriedly took out the key and opened the lock. He pushed the door into the yard. He saw that the gray pigeon had just fallen on the pigeon cage, waiting to enter the cage.

Zhang Debao saw a pipe with a tube of pigeon tied to his legs at a glance. He quickly grabbed a handful of millet and placed it on his palm. The pigeon flew into his palm. While stroking the pigeon's feathers, Zhang Debao skillfully untied the tube. A thin layer of white silk was wrapped on the outside. After tearing it apart, it turned out to be a red tube inside, which meant that it was highly important. The source of the tube was actually Xingyang. Zhang Debao was a little stunned. Xingyang was the base of Li Guangbi's coaching yamen.

He didn't dare to neglect, and ran to the fourth floor with the message tube like a tavern. He ran to the fourth floor in one breath. He was so tired that he walked to a door and knocked on the door.

"Who?" The voice of a young woman came from inside.

"Girl, it's me! There are urgent letters."

"Come in!"

Zhang Debao pushed the door open and he was actually reluctant to come to this room. He privately called this room a "haunted house" and always pulled thick curtains, which were dim, gloomy, cold and bone-black, but had no musty smell, but a faint strange fragrance, an indescribable fragrance that makes people unable to think of the fragrance of women's powder.

The room was empty, with only one table and one mat, and there were several neat stacks of papers on the table. A woman in a black gauze dress sat at the table and her back was straight, her back was long and slim, and her skin was scaryly pale. In Zhang Debao's memory, every time he came in, he saw that the woman was facing away from him, always like a black widow.

Zhang Debao couldn't help but sigh secretly, why can't the girl be as normal as other women?

"Leave me the letter!"

The woman turned her head. Although her face was so white that she was scary and her eyes were as cold as snow, her face was as crystal clear as ice jade and her appearance was magnificent. Unfortunately, she had no left arm, and had a shoulder-length broken, and only had one hand.

This woman is Qi Yuhua, the new leader of the Hebei Intelligence Branch, who replaced Zhang Yue. She is only 25 years old this year. She is the daughter of Qi Huaiyuan, one of the 24 core members of the Yinlong Association. She has been studying arts in the Central Plains since she was a child and has a strong martial arts skills. She joined the Han Tang Association at the age of 15. When she was eighteen, she married her childhood sweetheart. The couple was extremely loving. Unfortunately, only one year after marriage, her husband fell ill and died. She vowed to keep her husband chastity for life. In order to make her heart clear, she cut off her left arm and devoted herself to the cause of the Han Tang Association. She made many contributions and gained progress step by step. After Zhang Yue's death, she was appointed by Li Qing'an as the leader of the Hebei Branch.

Qi Yuhua has a nickname in the Han and Tang Dynasties, called Heiyuan, which is very famous. After a long time, everyone forgot her real name.

Qi Yuhua came to Xiangzhou from Yizhou ten days ago. This was the order of the Chang'an Intelligence Hall, ordering her to lead her Deli's subordinates to enter Xiangzhou and help the Tang army defend the city.

Guanzhong Restaurant is one of their branches. Zhang Debao is the head of the Xiangzhou branch. His fourteen men are all members of the Han and Tang dynasties, but they don’t know that Qi Yuhua is their supervisor, and only know that a strange woman has come.

Zhang Debao put the pigeon letter on the table and immediately took a few steps back. Qi Yuhua broke the tube with one hand and slowly unfolded a roll of pigeon letter on the table. She pressed the edge with a shiny dagger and read it carefully. Although the letter was written in Anxi's password, it was not an obstacle for her. She quickly read it, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes. She was afraid that she would understand it wrongly, so she took out a booklet, and compared the password and translated it again. It turned out that she had read it wrongly.

She nodded and ordered Zhang Debao: "You go to Xiangzhou City to collect two things for me."

"Please tell me, girl."

"One is saltpeter and the other is sulfur. The more you need, the better. I will immediately mobilize the guy to collect it. I have an urgent need."

Speaking of this, Qi Yuhua fell silent again. She stared at Ge Xin and fell into a kind of contemplation.

"Girl, then I'll go first."

Zhang Debao said twice, and saw that she had no reaction, he was about to leave secretly. As soon as he walked to the door, he was stopped by Qi Yuhua.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, wait a moment!"

Her voice was always so cold and cold, without any emotion. Zhang Debao sighed secretly. He missed Zhang Yue in the past very much, and this woman made him feel scared.

"Miss, is there anything else?"

"Have you done what I told you yesterday?"

"Oh! The girl is talking about the person who raises pigeons in Xiangzhou City."

"Yes! Have you found it?"

Zhang Debao smiled bitterly in his heart. He told him yesterday evening that it was just dawn and she was about to bear fruit. And she didn't say why she wanted to find pigeons, which made him confused. Fortunately, his locals are very familiar with the situation in this regard, otherwise there would be no way to investigate if someone else. Where can I find pigeons tonight?

"Report to the girl, as far as I can tell, there are thirteen pigeon-raising companies in Xiangzhou City. Now most of them have left, and there are still four companies left. I know the location of these four companies."

"Did anyone just moved here half a month ago?"

Zhang Debao suddenly slapped his forehead. He understood why the Lord Qi checked the pigeons. He was excited and said, "Yes! There is a family, I only found out a few days ago that it was Baiyutang Cabinet. It just opened half a month ago and others ran away, but they came to Xiangzhou Cabinet Open Cabinet. What a weird thing! They have pigeons at home."

"Very good! You can retreat. Within two days, you will find all the sulfur and saltpeter in Xiangzhou City."

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The Baiyutang Cabinet opened against the market, which really made many people feel incredible. Generally speaking, when the war is critical, many merchants will evacuate from dangerous places. Once the chaotic soldiers enter the city, the merchants will first suffer. What's more, the money-gathering place of the chaotic soldiers is the focus of the first looting of the chaotic soldiers. Moreover, opening the cabinet requires a lot of capital, but they are willing to invest in the dangerous city of Xiangzhou. They either have a relationship with An Lushan and know that the chaotic soldiers will not loot them, or they are crazy.

There are people who persuade and laugh at them, but Baiyutang Cabinet opened normally ten days ago. It is located in the relatively prosperous East Street of Xiangzhou City, about 300 steps from the Guanzhong Tavern.
Chapter completed!