Since Emperor Xuanzong of Tang reformed the military system into a conscription system, the Tang army expanded its territory to become the most powerful military force in the world at that time, and finally divided into two major military groups within the Tang army, one was the military group that fought against Tubo and the western region to the west, and the other was the military group that fought against the Khitan and mobei to the east. In the end, An Lushan of the Eastern Group rebelled, and the Western Group naturally took up the mission of opposing An Lushan.
On the battlefield against An Lushan, the generals from the western region commanded the main force to block the westward advance of An Lushan's army at Tongguan, while the partial division of the Shuofang Army was responsible for attacking the rear of An Lushan's army in Shanxi, the Hebei region. The Shuofang Army was not well-known in previous foreign battles, but the military stage of Datang in the next few decades will be theirs, and they are the pillars of the country that Datang stepped forward in times of crisis.
Taihang well path
Phnom Penh Silver Horn is the term of Go, on the big chessboard of China, Shanxi is the silver horn that connects Guanzhong and Hebei, and the Shuofang Army is to start from Shanxi through the Taihang Mountains to Hebei - the base camp of the rebels. So where do they have to go to get over the Taihang Mountains to reach the enemy's base camp, and there is only one answer -- the Eight Paths of Taihang.
The Taihang Eight Trails have been famous since ancient times, which is the main traffic belt from Shanxi to the Central Plains, and the Shuofang Army, commanded by Guo Ziyi, is the closest unit to Shanxi among the Tang army. From the well path of the Taihang Mountain, it can be directly reached to the Hebei region, hebei is the base camp of the rebellious An Lushan army, no matter what the results of the Shuofang army, as long as the well path will bring the threat of the an Lushan rebels to the belly and back of the enemy.
Guo Ziyi chose to send the general Li Guangbi out of the well and directly into the heart of An Lu mountain, but since the ancient Taihang Eight Trails were rugged and difficult to attack, Li Guangbi's expedition was likely to mean a bloody offensive and defensive battle. Fortunately, at that time, hebei had already heard the activities of local officials leading the rebellion against the rebels, and Changshan County, which was located at the mouth of the well, also rebelled against the An Lushan army, and Li Guangbi could support the rebels to directly retake hebei as long as he accelerated out of the well path.
Troop well path
Li Guangbi led 10,000 infantry and 3,000 crossbowmen out of the well to reach Changshan, but he still came one step too late, and Changshan and the Hebei rebels were mostly annihilated by The General Shi Siming of An Lushan. The people of Changshan still had their hearts set on The Tang Clan, and after hearing the news of the arrival of the Tang army, they would kill the Hu soldiers in the city and bundle up the rebel general An Siyi to see Li Guangbi.
After Li Guangbi saw An Siyi again, he used sparing him from death as a bargaining chip to get first-hand information about Shi Siming, who was only in Raoyang, which was only two hundred miles away, and must quickly enter the city or perish under the attack of Shi Siming's Hu horse. Li Guangbi preemptively entered the city and occupied Changshan, preparing to use the city to resist Shi Siming who was coming.
After hearing of the fall of Changshan, Shi Siming immediately killed Changshan, but in one day he led his main force of 20,000 cavalry to Reach Changshan Castle. Li Guangbi sent 5,000 infantry out of the East Gate to face the enemy's cavalry units, although the cavalry directly attacking the infantry phalanx would cause heavy casualties, but at this time, Shi Siming's troops showed a very strong fighting style, and vowed to take the East Gate as the main force to fight a way. The east gate could not be lost, and the crossbowmen brought by Li Guangbi came in handy, and the crossbowmen above the city wall finally forced the enemy troops away by firing condescendingly. The Tang army had to take the initiative to attack in order to win a greater living space for itself, the Tang army divided the troops into two parts, a thousand crossbowmen were divided into four teams of component section shooting methods to garrison the north of the road, and the five thousand infantry linhe column long gun array and the crossbowmen echoed each other in the south of the road directly blocking the enemy's way forward.
That night, the Tang army found five thousand people from Raoyang under the alarm of the villagers, and Li Guangbi directly led two thousand people to sneak attack the enemy, just when the enemy was cooking and resting, Li Guangbi effortlessly annihilated the enemy. Li Guangbi gained a foothold in Changshan and formed a confrontation with Shi Siming.
Shi Siming only had two of the nine counties in Changshan, and he seemed to be in a weak position, but Shi Siming's troops were still more than Li Guangbi's. For the seven newly built cities, Li Guangbi each sent three hundred people to garrison, and his logistical supply was completely from the rear through the well path to Changshan, the Taihang Mountains were already rugged, and the war was a thing of burning money and burning materials, which gave Li Guangbi great pressure, and he was now advancing or retreating. Shi Siming could sit back and relax, after all, behind him was the Fanyang base camp with sufficient supplies, and he waited for Li Guangbi with a waiting moment, and time and hunger would naturally bring victory to him. Of course, Shi Siming did not wait quietly, taking the initiative to attack was the king's way, and he sent a cavalry unit to directly attack Li Guangbi's key point - logistics.
The two sides held each other for more than forty days, Li Guangbi first ran out of food, Shi Siming's cavalry was still wandering in the wilderness, and Li Guangbi sent five hundred vehicles to deliver supplies. The five hundred vehicles were very armed, and the driver of each car had to wear armor and be accompanied by two crossbowmen, not only so that the carriages and horses had to form a formation to transport grain and grass to block Shi Siming's cavalry troops. In this way, the soldiers and horses in Li Guangbi's hands are getting less and less, and Changshan will become Li Guangbi's burial place in this way, and it is necessary to replenish the soldiers and horses, otherwise it is only a matter of time before Changshan is lost.
Help, I Li Guangbi is not alone in the battle, I have the Tang Dynasty behind me, there is shuofang army, there is Guo Ziyi, my task of opening the well path has been completed, now wait for Guo Ziyi's army to arrive can directly attack Shi Siming. In April, Guo Ziyi led more than 100,000 troops from Jingjing to join Li Guangbi at Changshan. The Tang army now had an absolute superiority over Shi Siming's troops, and Shi Siming's end had arrived.
Shuofang's army directly attacked the Jiumen where Shi Siming was stationed, and the two sides fought in the south of Jiumen City, Shi Siming's superiority in troops had been lost, and he fled to Boling after a little contact with the Tang army. The people of Heshuo have long been deeply affected by Shi Siming's brutality, and for a while the Tang army has the potential to regain Hebei by expanding its territory, and now only Shi Siming is trapped in Boling, as long as Shi Siming is taken, hebei, the rebel base camp, will return to the hands of the Tang, and the Anshi rebellion will end completely.
However, soon the news of the loss of Tongguan came, and the powerful Tang Dynasty Western Front Army Group was inexplicably destroyed, and Guo Ziyi's Shuofang army had to abandon the newly recovered lost land, withdraw from the well to Guanzhong to support Tang Suzong, who had just ascended the throne, and retake the imperial capital, Chang'an City.
Originally, An Lushan's lair could have been captured, but once it was captured, An Lushan, which had lost its rear, would soon face collapse, and there would be no 8-year-old An Shi Rebellion. However, Tang Xuanzong Li Longji was anxious to succeed and forced Ge Shuhan at Tongguan to forcibly attack, resulting in a major defeat and the destruction of the main force of the Tang army. Li Longji's mistake gave An Lushan a lease of life.
Author of this article: Tunken West Road