Portrait of Zhang Tour
In 755 AD, An Lushan rebelled against Tang, led 150,000 troops, from Fanyang south, swept through Hebei Henan, the Tang army in all prefectures and counties either fled or surrendered, but there were also heroes who desperately resisted the rebels, Yan Zhenqing of Shandong Plain (Dezhou), Yan Gaoqing of Changshan (Zhengding) in Hebei Province, and Zhang Tour of Henan, although they were weak, they fought with the rebels to the death, showing a heroic and fearless spirit, today we will talk about the Song and weeping Yongqiu defense battle led by Zhang Tour.
Zhang Tour was a native of Hedong, Puzhou (Yongji, Shanxi), who had been reading books since childhood and was proficient in military affairs. After passing the examination, the imperial court made him the crown prince and served as the commander of Qinghe County, and because of his outstanding political achievements, he was transferred back to Kyoto, and in Chang'an, seeing the ugly face of the traitorous minister Yang Guozhong, Zhang Tour disdained the intrigues in the official field, chose to continue to serve as an official outside the court, and then served as the Zhenyuan (Henan Luyi) County Order, Zhang Tour, during his term of office, he loved the people, strictly punished local bullies, and won the support and love of the local people. In 756, the stable and peaceful life was broken by the rebellion of the thief An Lushan, and the war quickly spread to the territory of Zhang Tour's Zhenyuan. There were only two paths ahead of them, surrendering to the rebels or fighting a decisive battle.
In 756, the rebels captured Song Prefecture (Suiyang District, Shangqiu City) and Cao Prefecture (Heze City, Shandong) with the wind and clouds. Yang Wanshi, the Taishou of Tan Commandery (亳州, Anhui), fell in anticipation of the enemy, and Zhang Guanshi was a subordinate of Yang Wanshi, who coerced Zhang Guanshi into changshi and went west to meet the rebels, Zhang Tour led his men to cry at the Xuanyuan Emperor's ancestral hall, and decided to fight against the rebels, and the team reached a thousand people. Shan Father (杞县, Inc.), commander Jia Ben (匯贲), led his troops to repel the rebel Zhang Tonghui and joined Zhang At Yongqiu (雍丘, in present-day Qixian County, Henan), with a total of more than 2,000 soldiers.
At the same time, there was a turning point in Yongqiu City, the original Suiyang officials and troops were defeated by the rebels led by Ling Huchao, Ling Huchao captured a hundred Suiyang troops tied to the courtyard, ready to kill, when Ling Huchao went to meet the rebel general Li Tingwang, they broke free of the rope, killed the guards, the city fell into chaos, taking this opportunity, Zhang Tour and Jia Ben led their troops to rush into Yongqiu City, closed the city gate, so that Ling Fox Chao could not return to Yongqiu, the official army killed Ling Fox Chao's family, Zhang Tour led everyone to strengthen the yongqiu county defense fortifications, Prepare to defend the city against the enemy.
The angry and corrupt Ling Fox Tide was not willing to fail, not to mention that it was originally his county town and his home. Ling Fox Chao led more than 10,000 rebels to make a comeback and launched a fierce attack on Yongqiu.
Sieges in ancient times
Zhang Tour's Yongqiu defenders all added up to less than 4,000 people, they faced the rebels attacking like a tide, without fear, Jia Ben first led the troops to battle, launched a charge against the rebels, the battle was very fierce, Jia Ben was unfortunately killed. Zhang Patrol jumped on his warhorse and led the Tang army to continue to fight with the enemy army, charging and killing many times in a row, although Zhang Tour was wounded in many places, but also made the rebels pay the price of nearly 10,000 casualties. Zhang's defenders suffered 1,200 casualties. Zhang Tour's desperate battle with his men forced Ling Fox Chao to retreat.
Zhang patrols the city
The next day, Ling Huchao regained its strength and gathered the rebel generals Li Huaixian, Yang Chaozong, Xie Yuan, and several other troops, totaling 40,000 people, and pounced on Yongqiu like a fierce tiger, vowing to tear Zhang Tour to pieces.
Zhang Patrol was calm and self-assured, stood on a high platform, and carried out pre-war mobilization: "Brothers, although the enemy army is numerous, it will certainly look down on us, since ancient times the proud soldiers will be defeated, we take advantage of the enemy's lax defenses, take the initiative to carry out a surprise attack, so that it can not collapse into an army, we have struck at the enemy's arrogance, Yongqiu will certainly be able to hold!" The soldiers, who had been panicked and frightened, were encouraged and strengthened their belief in victory.
Ancient ladders besieged the city
Just when the enemy was unstable, Zhang Patrol led a thousand cavalry, divided into several groups, and quickly killed out of the city, although the rebels were numerous, but they did not expect Zhang Tour to dare to take the initiative to attack, Zhang Patrol cavalry like a sharp knife, fiercely stabbed into the heart of the rebels, making it difficult for Fox Tide to organize a team that was impacted and chaotic, and had to retreat.
Standing firmly, Ling Fox Chao mobilized hundreds of trebuchets and violently bombarded Yongqiu City, and the city wall was broken in many places, and Zhang Patrol immediately organized soldiers to repair the wooden fence and seal the gap in the city wall. At the same time, Zhang Order's men poured grease with bundles of artemisia grass and ignited the enemy troops who threw themselves at Pancheng again, and the rebels were burned to the point of dodging one after another, and did not dare to climb the city wall.
Siege equipment
Zhang Tour let the general Lei Wanchun ascend to the city tower and was unfortunately hit by an arrow when commanding the battle, but General Lei stood firm and was hit by six arrows in the face alone! The rebels thought it was a wooden man, and Zhang Patrol scolded the thieves in the city: "Cunning thief, can you deny that I am General Lei?" The rebels were stunned and panicked, and Zhang Patrol took advantage of the situation to lead the troops out of the city, captured fourteen enemy generals, beheaded more than a hundred ranks, and forced Fox Tide to retreat.
Although he won a small victory, the situation was still very grim, and Zhang Tour, who was very calm, ordered his subordinate Li Han to go to the Fox Tide military camp and pretend to surrender, which made Fox Tide very happy and immediately relaxed his vigilance. At night, Zhang Patrol led a thousand daredevils out of the city quietly, under the cover of night, they touched the camp headquarters of the Fox Tide rebels, such as the heavenly soldiers, who raised their knives to kill, and the unsuspecting rebels were in chaos, causing fox tide to wake up from his dream, he certainly did not dream that Zhang Patrol dared to rob the camp, the soldiers fell into a huge panic, did not listen to the orders at all, Zhang Tour's men and horses carried out a hearty slash and kill of the enemy army, causing the rebels to suffer thousands of casualties, and then returned satisfied.
This sneak attack made Fox Chao even more angry, and vowed to take Yongqiu and kill all the defenders in the city, in disgrace.
The rebels continued to besiege Yongqiu, repeatedly attacking fiercely, the battle lasted for several months, Yongqiu has become an isolated city, Ling Huchao wrote to Zhang Tour, saying: "The capital Chang'an has been captured by us, the emperor has also run to Sichuan, Datang has no power to return to heaven, quickly surrender!" Zhang Patrol was very shocked to know that Chang'an was lost, he called everyone to a meeting, the generals were depressed, and six generals stood up and said: "The current situation is dangerous, if we continue to resist, we will only have one way to die, or surrender!" Zhang Tour led the generals to pay homage to the emperor's portrait, and then killed the six people, and the morale of the officers and soldiers was high, and they vowed to defend Yongqiu to the death.
The Tang army defended the city
The rebel ship transporting grain was discovered by Zhang Tour, so Zhang Tour pretended to gather troops in the city to the south of the city, so that Fox Tide got the news, and also quickly gathered the rebels to move south of the city to prepare for battle, in fact, Zhang Tour arranged another team of people and horses, robbed the rebel grain carriers, and the remaining grain was also burned, alleviating the problem of insufficient grain and grass for the Tang army.
The continuous attack of the enemy army made the weapons of the Tang army consume very quickly, and the very important bows and arrows were also used up, and when the rebels climbed the city wall to attack, a large number of bows and arrows were needed to stop it. In the night, the rebels besieging Yongqiu County suddenly found that many black-clad Tang troops climbed down the city wall along the rope, so that the fox tide urgently ordered the soldiers to release arrows, and in a flash, like raindrops of bows and arrows shot at the black-clad people on the city wall, the rebels kept shooting arrows until dawn, making the fox tide wipe their eyes, the black-clad people on the city wall turned out to be thousands of grass people, Zhang Patrol did not spend much effort, he let the fox tide give away more than 100,000 arrows for free, solving the problem of the shortage of bows and arrows in the city.
In the next few days, Zhang Patrol still put down the straw man from the city wall at night, this time making fox Chao learn to be smart, not to put an arrow, for several days in a row, and then there were straw people appearing, and the rebels were as indifferent as if they had not seen it. The enemy's paralysis was the opportunity for Zhang To patrol, and that night, five hundred men dressed in black came down from the city wall, this time real, so that the fox tide's army did not raise their eyelids, but these "straw men" landed on the ground and directly pounced on the rebels, and the warriors held up their swords and swords, and entered the enemy camp with lightning speed, and the unsuspecting rebels could only be meat on the felt board - to be slaughtered. Fox Tide's army was again dead and wounded.
The war situation was even more unfavorable to Zhang Tour's Tang army as the rebels continued to increase their troops, and the rebels cut off the grain routes of the officers from Qizhou, north of Yongqiu, and prepared to capture Ningling in an attempt to cut off yongqiu's rear road, so Zhang Tour took the initiative to withdraw from Yongqiu and met with Suiyang Taishou Xuyuan and Chengfu Ling (official name) Yao Tao at Ningling.
With outstanding military ability and fearless spirit and fighting spirit, Zhang Tour swore to resist the enemy to the death with the enemy, and the Yongqiu Defense War lasted for nearly a year.
In 848, Tang Xuanzong hung portraits of Zhang Tour and thirty-seven others in Lingyan Pavilion. Various generations also enshrined statues of Zhang Tour at the Taimiao Temple, sharing royal sacrifices with the emperor. Their loyal souls have been praised by later generations as the backbone of the nation in times of crisis. The people spontaneously built the Zhang Patrol Ancestral Hall and the Shuangzhong Temple, which will be commemorated forever.
Shuangzhong Temple
Later, Zhang Tour, Xu Yuan, Nan Jiyun, Lei Wanchun and other heroes desperately guarded the isolated city of Suiyang and martyred the country. Effectively restraining the pace of the rebels moving south, protecting the people of Jianghuai from being destroyed, making the imperial court breathe, freeing up their hands to recover the two capitals, Zhang Tour and his generals performed a magnificent and fierce tragic song, which is another story.
Shuangzhong Temple Zhang Patrol Temple