The spirit of the three armies moved the autumn, and the feather star flew to the end of the battle. The blood-stained white flag could not be crossed, and people still say that they have not climbed the building. One shot and one sword decisive career, the horse and the dragon snake are all over. The golden drum sounded three times and the heaven and earth closed, and blood flowers flew in the Xiangji Temple.
Xiangji Temple is a temple in present-day Chang'an District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, bordered by Shenheyuan to the east, Meridian Valley to the south, Yinghe River to the west, and Shaolingyuan to the north; The temple is solemn and solemn, with magnificent scenery, beautiful mountains and waters, and pleasant scenery, and is a famous tourist attraction in Xi'an.
But who would have thought that more than a thousand years ago, a thrilling and bloody war broke out here?
A great man once said: It is not just two new weapons that determine the outcome of a war.
This was the Battle of Xiangji Temple from September 77 to the second year of Emperor Suzong of Tang. The battle was initiated by the Tang army and fought three counterattacks against the rebel army led by An Lushan in order to retake Chang'an. This battle is known as the most glorious battle in Chinese history.
Therefore, the battle of Xiangji Temple will be known as the peak battle of China's cold weapon era, not only because of weapons such as Mo Dao, but more importantly, this battle, a large number of troops were invested, the casualty rate was high, and the fierceness of the battle was high.
The Tang army won, but because the battle situation was too fierce, this victory could only be described as miserable for the Tang army. In terms of the battle intent and strength comparison of the two sides in this battle, the Tang army will inevitably win a big victory, that is to say, the casualty rate of this war is as high as more than sixty percent, and countless people will inevitably die and blood stains the earth.
The commander of the Tang army was Li Heng, Emperor Suzong of Tang, who had just ascended the throne at that time, because his father Li Longji of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled to Shuzhong to escape the Anshi Rebellion, so he could become emperor. After Li Heng ascended the throne, the only thing he had to do was to calm the Anshi Rebellion, which he had to do. The first step in calming the Anshi chaos is to close people's hearts; If you want to win people's hearts, you must re-establish the prestige of the Great Tang Dynasty. If he wants to regain power, the most urgent task is to recapture the capital Chang'an, which is also the key to whether Li Heng can keep the throne.
Therefore, Li Heng must launch a war to retake Chang'an. This made Li Heng's heart more anxious, and at the same time more cautious. This time, Li Heng was also thoughtful. Moreover, Li Heng also has an unknown secret, that is, his father, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, reluctantly abdicated. Therefore, Li Longji wrote clearly on the holy decree of the throne: "When Li Heng retakes Chang'an, I will pass on the throne." ”
And his eldest son, King Guangping, Li Li, was later Emperor Tang Daizong. Although he is not a heroic warrior, he is definitely not a playboy. Although Li Li is the commander, he is actually going out for his father to preside over the overall situation.
Li Heng, who was full of fighting spirit, naturally knew that his son was not a master of marching and fighting, and the main purpose of making him a marshal was to calm the emotions of the soldiers. Therefore, Li Heng appointed Guo Ziyi as a deputy marshal to be in charge of military affairs this time.
Guo Ziyi was serving as the envoy of Shuofang at that time, and was a famous general during the Zhongxing period of the Tang Dynasty, with both civil and military skills, and had considerable prestige in the army. His alliance with Li Ling perfectly combined the military and political aspects of the Tang army. Next, Li Heng carefully selected three generals according to Guo Ziyi's opinion.
Pioneer general Li Siye, Anxi Jiedu made Liang Zai's fierce general, burly, infinitely powerful, good at swords, brave and good at fighting. He made great contributions to the battle of the Western Regions and was known as the "Divine General". The commander of the Second Army, Wang Sili, is a commander who is good at strategizing and meticulous.
The cavalry commander Gu Huaien, a general of the Tile tribe, was good at riding and shooting, and was brave and good at fighting. He experienced hundreds of battles and few defeats, and in order to calm the Anshi Rebellion, his family sacrificed more than forty people, and he himself was a righteous exterminator, and even killed his son once.
The reason why these three generals were able to be selected, in addition to their experience in hundreds of battles, what was more important was their loyalty to the Great Tang! From this moment on, His Majesty the Emperor and the generals of the Tang Army were full of fighting spirit and shared hatred, laying a solid foundation for the battle of Xiangji Temple.
On the other hand, the pseudo-Great Yan Emperor An Qingxu, who had just killed his father An Lushan and ascended the throne. Although he was good at riding and shooting, his personality was somewhat cowardly, and after he ascended the throne, he handed over military and political power to the Wen Chen Yan Zhuang, who was his accomplice in the murder of An Lushan, and he himself was a person greedy for pleasure.
These generals of the rebels are experienced in hundreds of battles, murderous, insatiable, Yan Zhuang's means of winning people's hearts, in their opinion, is actually a kind of connivance, more hateful than raising tigers, because of this, they can see the weakness of Yan Zhuang and An Qingxu, so they will disdain An Yan and the two.
An Qingxu's status was not high, and Yan Zhuang was only a civilian, and the reputation of the two of them in the rebel army far exceeded An Lushan's reputation. Yan Zhuang himself was well aware of this, so when he took power, he adopted the strategy of wooing important generals under An Lushan, and stabilized the situation through promotions and awards.
An Shouzhong, a general of the rebel army stationed in Chang'an, as An Lushan's adopted son, had high military attainments; Cavalry commander Li Guiren, commanding the elite cavalry of "dragging the river", brave and fierce; Jing Zhao Yin Tian Qianzhen is a local army commander and has high military attainments; General of Xijing, deputy commander of the Chang'an Army, Zhang Tongru.
General An, General Li, General Tian, these three generals, all when An Lushan rebelled, they have been following An Lushan, and are regarded as a wizard by Li Yu, the adviser of Tang Suzong, although Zhang Tongru is not a prominent figure, but can be appreciated by An Lushan, holding such an important position, naturally not an ordinary person.
An Lushan
An Lushan rebellion was characterized by a lack of initiative. After An Lushan won a big victory in the early stage, together with his subordinates, he frantically burned and looted, and indulged in lust. In this way, they no longer had the fighting spirit, no longer had to chase after the victory, and entered Shuzhong, giving the Great Tang a chance to breathe and Li Heng a chance to make a comeback.
After An Qingxu ascended the throne, it was even worse. An Qingxu, Yan Zhuang and other Chang'an rebel generals, although they were also doing their best to prepare, but they were not as active as the Tang army, because they were ready to meet the Tang army to retake Chang'an for the third time.
In this war, the Tang army dispatched 150,000 troops, while the rebels in Chang'an only had more than a hundred thousand, the generals worked together, the morale was high, whether in command or strength, the Tang army occupied an absolute advantage, how could it end in such a tragic victory? All this is because the rebels' combat effectiveness is too strong.
Therefore, the Chang'an rebels dared to go head-to-head with the Tang army, because they did not put the Tang army in their eyes at all, because they did not put themselves in their eyes at all. In May 757, the Tang army, led by Guo Ziyi and Gu Huaien, was defeated by them twice at Tongguan and Qingqu.
Especially in the battle of Qingqu, the Tang army had more than 40,000 people and the rebels more than 10,000 people, Guo Ziyi, with the advantage of numbers, took the lead in launching an attack, charging in a frontal formation, but was held to death by the rebels with more than 1,000 heavy armored cavalry, and then divided a force of more than 4,000 light cavalry, quickly outflanked the rear of the Tang army from both sides, defeated the Tang army to pieces, and finally suffered a crushing defeat.
The two defeats allowed Guo Ziyi to see the strength of the rebel army, and also made him realize that the rebel army is not only amazing in combat, but more importantly, their commanders, An Shouzhong and Li Guiren, are all a generation of heroes! However, if the rebels are so strong, is the Tang army so weak? But this was not the case, most of the Tang troops came from the towns of Pinglu, Anxi, Shuofang and other towns, well-trained and able to defeat a powerful enemy every time.
Guo Ziyi carefully analyzed the reasons for the defeat and found that the Tang army had three biggest weaknesses compared with the rebels, one is that most of the Tang army came from the bitter cold of the Western Regions, not afraid of the cold, compared with Chang'an, the temperature of the Tang army was much higher, so there was not much fighting spirit.
Second, the Tang army is dominated by infantry, while the rebels are dominated by iron horses, especially iron horses, which are even more difficult, in comparison, the Tang army is inferior in combat power and mobility; The third point is that there are many cavalry from the major domains and towns in the Western Regions, and there are also many cavalry from various tribes in the Western Regions, so the cooperation between the Tang army is not as tacit as the rebels, and it takes a certain amount of time to run-in.
This was the third time Chang'an was recaptured, and Emperor Suzong of Tang appointed Li Li as a marshal, showing the determination of the imperial court to win the victory, and everyone was ready for the scorching summer. What Guo Ziyi needed to do was to develop a set of exquisite tactics against the weaknesses of the Tang army based on previous experience.
First of all, he abandoned the Tang army's front-arrow formation in the Battle of Qingqu and changed it to a continuous formation of three levels: front, middle and back, strengthening the in-depth defense of the Tang army in the Battle of Qingqu; Secondly, let Li Siye serve as the vanguard and command the Mo Dao Army, which was specially used to deal with the rebels, "Dragging River", which in Turkic, means warrior, warrior, and Mo Dao is a weapon in the field.
Third, it strictly ordered the white army, which was responsible for reconnaissance on the battlefield, to pay close attention to the movements of the cavalry on both wings of the rebels; Fourth, Claude ordered the servant Gu Huaien to ambush the flank of the central army with 4,000 Uighur cavalry, and once the rebel light cavalry outflanked from the flank, they would immediately dispatch to surround the rebels and annihilate them in one fell swoop.
Although everything is ready, neither Tang Suzong nor Guo Ziyi can completely let go of their hearts. This time, in addition to the 110,000 elites selected from the major clan towns, Tang Suzong also borrowed 40,000 troops from the Uighur, Dashi, Khotan, Nanban and other tribes at a great price.
Emperor Suzong of Tang promised that as long as Chang'an was recaptured, the Tang court would only take the territory, and the rest of the family property would return to the Uighurs, which made the leader of the Uighurs agree. These 150,000 Great Tang troops were already the most elite forces that Tang Suzong could mobilize. If Tang Suzong was a gambler who lost badly, then this time to retake Chang'an, he had already put all the bets on himself, how could he still remain calm? And Guo Ziyi, as a "deputy marshal", how could he not understand his mind.
Before leaving, Tang Suzong set up a banquet to see off the soldiers, and before the banquet, he held Guo Ziyi's hand and repeatedly instructed: "Great Tang, in the midst of this battle." For the strength of the rebels, Guo Ziyi also knew it, and did not dare to be careless, so he could only do his best, but he did not know what the outcome of this battle would be. He could only say to Tang Suzong: "If this battle is lost, I am willing to pay it back with my life." "Thousands of soldiers and horses invaded Chang'an, and the mountains were full of snow at dusk. There were many warriors in the Dragon Court that day, and they are also heroic today.
The Tang army marched towards Chang'an City, and after entering Chang'an City, Guo Ziyi, according to the intelligence of the Taobai Army, chose a plain northwest of Xiangji Temple, where Fengshui and Wei River meet, and is a heavenly graben on the left flank of the Tang army.
According to the prior arrangement, the Tang army lined up to wait for battle. By noon, only the voices of the people were heard, the horses were hissing, An Shouzhong, Li Guiren and two other generals led a hundred thousand rebels, killed from the north, more than 200,000 people, divided into two camps, with clear banners, swords and shadows, and smoke and dust.
Li Guiren was the first to stand up and challenge the rebels, and with an infantryman, he rushed towards the Tang army, and saw that he was about to rush to the front of the Tang army. Under the order of Li Siye, the forward of the Tang army, tens of thousands of crossbow arrows kept shooting, instantly rushing the rebels to pieces. As soon as Li Siye gave an order, all the cavalry and infantry attacked at the same time, and Li Guiren saw that the situation was not good, and immediately turned his horse's head and retreated.
The Tang army followed closely and came to the front of the rebels. Suddenly, just listening to Li Guiren laughing up to the sky, as soon as the flag in his hand was raised, the pawns in the front row of the rebels separated to the sides like a tide, and with the sound of a cannon, the heavy horses of the rebel "dragging the river" battalion rushed out like lightning!
Those Tang army infantry horses who were chasing behind did not have time to make any reaction, and they were rushed in front of them by those heavy cavalrymen! Heavy armored cavalry, wrapped in heavy armor, extremely defensive, invulnerable to swords and guns, inaccessible to swords and guns, if you add chains, it is like the two whips in "Water Margin".
"Dragging the River" wielded a long sword, under the trampling of the war horse, no matter how fierce the Tang army was not afraid of death, it could not resist this powerful force, and could only retreat step by step. But Li Quiren was unwilling, took the lead, turned around and rushed, and the "dragging river" of ten thousand horses followed closely. In the blink of an eye, they came to the front of the Tang army.
When the infantry and cavalry of the front began to retreat, Li Siye had already seen that Li Guiren's defeat was just a pretense, the purpose was to hide the location of the "Falling River", let the "Falling River" raid, kill the living forces of the Tang army, thereby disrupting the formation of the Tang army and plunging the Tang army into chaos.
But what Li Quiren didn't know was that Li Siye had already made all preparations according to Guo Ziyi's orders, he turned around and looked at Guo Ziyi, and at the moment Li Guiren rushed over, Li Siye took off his armor, raised the long knife in his hand high, and shouted: "Follow me!" With a long roar, more than two thousand soldiers of the Mo Dao Army also raised their knives to kill, lined up, and the Mo Dao flew up and down, forming an airtight knife wall!
The Mo knife was a powerful weapon in the Tang Dynasty and was respected by many online novels, but because the Tang Dynasty clearly stipulated that the Mo knife could not be used for burial, no one has seen its true face until now. According to the records of the "Old Book of Tang" and "Zizhi Tongjian", the Mo knife is sharp, specially built for the Tang army, specially used to deal with the cavalry of nomadic tribes, and when brandished, it can penetrate several layers of armor and tear a cavalry soldier to pieces!
There are two reasons why the Mo knife is sharp, one is because this knife has a unique shape, about one zhang long, weighs about fifteen pounds, has a handle and a blade, and has a blade on both sides, and secondly, the refining process of this knife is very complicated, using molten iron casting, using high carbon steel and low carbon steel. Because of this, the Mo Dao is so tough and heavy, and it takes a strong warrior to handle. Mo sword a thousand enemies, kill Hu'er did not dare to shout. I saw white sand like snow in the distance, and I saw rivers of blood at that time.
Without a weapon, Li Siye took the lead, with his strength, with the Mo Dao, he was invincible and unstoppable! In just the blink of an eye, more than a dozen people were killed, which made the entire Mo Dao Army cheer up. I saw that everywhere the knife went, blood and flesh were flying, ghosts were crying, and stumped limbs were flying all over the sky. One horse is the first to go out of the jam, and ten thousand people are invincible. But Li Siye's name is only eighteen people in Yuntai.
The invincible, invincible "Falling River" was stunned by this sudden knife wall, and the Tang army finally gained a foothold. The vanguard cavalry of the Tang army, following closely behind, faced with the rain of arrows shot by the rebels, the horse envoy king in the front, without any fear on his face, brandished the spear in his hand, waved his wings, and rushed towards the rebels. Wang Shao screamed in pain, but did not fall, he gritted his teeth, endured the severe pain, and reached out! With this pull, Wang Shao's eyelids were pulled down, blood flowed from his face, and he quickly wiped it with his sleeve and continued to fight. The horse stepped on the ground and went out of the pass, and the arrows shot like mountains and rivers. At that time, there was no art of war, and all the armies lost their face on this day.
Guo Ziyi stood in the center, taking in everything that was happening in front of her. He couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart, and sighed: "With King Li and the two here, why can't our army win?" "At this moment, a scout pegasus came to report that the rebel light horses lying in ambush in the east had been dispatched and were coming to our side!
A sneer appeared at the corner of Guo Ziyi's mouth: Do it again! He immediately sent someone to inform the servant Gu Huaien and prepare to meet the enemy! Gong Gu Wynne has been preparing for a long time. After receiving the order, he immediately rushed out with a group of heavy cavalry, like a huge dark cloud, rampaging across the battlefield and colliding with the ambush of the rebels.
In this battle, the victory and defeat have been divided! The Uighurs are safe and sound, but looking at the rebels, it is chaos! Seeing that the situation was not good, Servant Gu Huai'en was in great spirits, and instead of stopping, he shouted: "It's not polite to come and go!"
After that, he led a group of Uighur cavalry, stepped on the corpses of the rebels, and rushed towards the rear of the rebels. At this time, the sun had sunk in the west, and Guo Ziyi knew that it was time to fight back! With his order, the Chinese army followed, rushing forward like a tide, and among the rebels, An Shouzhong knew that the time for a decisive battle had come. Looking at the enemy in the abdomen, An Shou was loyal and not afraid of death, raised the big knife in his hand high, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, go up!" The rebels, who were gradually forced into a corner, under the order of An Shouzhong, were aroused to the most primitive wildness, like a battle of trapped beasts, and began a fierce fight.
Seeing that the Chinese army had broken through the rebel defenses, Wang Sili led the rear army and launched a final attack towards the front. More than 200,000 troops fought in the dark, and the sky was dark. Swords and shadows, corpses everywhere. The soldiers intersected, and the souls were scattered. Everywhere the horse's hooves pass, there is mud and flesh! Every soldier is like turning into a fierce beast, no matter whether the sword and gun are broken, no matter the rain of arrows, it cannot stop their waving arms, let alone stop their crazy shouts...
The sky gradually darkened, the shouts of killing became smaller and smaller, and the rebels had been caught between the Tang army and the front and back, with heavy casualties. Seeing that the general trend has gone and cannot be recovered; An Shouzhong, Li Guiren and others had to flee and returned to Chang'an City, retreating east overnight.
It's a bitter battle! From morning to afternoon, the Tang army killed more than 60,000 rebels and captured more than 20,000 with 70,000 casualties, recapturing Chang'an City in one fell swoop. This war was one of the few cold weapons wars in Chinese history, and it was also a turning point in the Anshi Rebellion, and since then, the Tang army has begun the process from defense to counterattack.
It's just that after Tang Suzong Li Heng returned to Chang'an City and re-ascended the throne, did he ever think about the hundreds of thousands of Tang troops who sacrificed their lives for him? Will there be a grand memorial? Will they show mercy to the widows and orphans they left behind? Ay! It's a pity that the white bones by the river are still in the dream.
The blood of the Chi clan generals was stained, and black clouds and yellow fog flew the next day. The heart of man is no longer there, where the heart of mourning and sacrifice is nine.
One hundred thousand loyal souls returned in tears, and the king was in a hurry. Tomorrow morning, he looked at Wuxiang, and he brought his clothes and bloody clothes.