Chapter 7: Geshu Han's Defeat

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  Yang Hui's repeated requests were finally known by Yang Guozhong.

  On June 8th, near noon, Yang Guozhong returned to the mansion and summoned Yang Hui to ask him questions.

  These past few days have been busy, staying in the palace to handle affairs without returning to the mansion. Yang Guozhong hasn't had a good night's sleep, his spirit isn't great, and he looks somewhat haggard, with very noticeable dark circles under his eyes. However, seeing that Yang Hui has regained her vitality and has a good complexion also makes him quite happy.

  However, Yang Guozhong was anxious at this time and after a few polite words, he directly asked: "Father, I want to ask you, does the Emperor have any orders for Geshu Han, the defender of Tong Pass, to come out of the pass and fight a decisive battle with the enemy?"

  "My son, why are you bringing up this important matter again? These past few days, I've been urgently searching for your father, could it be just to talk about this again?" Hearing Yang Hui say this, Yang Guozhong slightly furrowed his brow, and after getting Yang Hui's nod of acknowledgement, he immediately relaxed and smiled faintly: "Since you asked, I'll tell you. A few days ago, the Emperor agreed with my proposal and issued an edict to order Geshu Han to lead a strong army to attack! Cui Gan's forces in Shaanxi are less than 6,000 men, all weak and unprepared. An Lushan has already withdrawn a unit of elite soldiers back to Luoyang, preparing to defend Fanyang. This is precisely the perfect opportunity to annihilate the enemy! Just this morning, news arrived that the rebel army's vanguard was defeated, Geshu Han has won consecutive victories, and it will only take a few more days to completely annihilate the rebel army's vanguard!"

  "What?! Is it really like that?! Father, did Gao Shuhan really lead the army out of the pass to fight?" As soon as Yang Guozhong said this, Yang Hui's heart felt like it had sunk to the bottom of the water, and he cried out in distress!

  Good heavens! This father of mine is indeed foolish to the extreme, and has already incited Li Longji to force Geshu Han to come out of the pass and do battle.

  Seeing Yang Hui's astonished look, Yang Guozhong frowned again and said displeased: "Hui'er, why are you looking like this?"

  "Father, haven't you listened to a single word your child has said? If my child's prediction is not wrong, great disaster will befall our Great Tang again. Geshu Han will surely fall into the enemy's trap and be ambushed!" Yang Hui was somewhat exasperated.

  Yang Guozhong's face showed a look of displeasure, and he sternly glared at Yang Hui before asking, "Fourth Brother, why do you speak like this?"

  Yang Guozhong's anger was evident on his face, but Yang Hui didn't take it to heart. He didn't care about anything anymore and directly recited some content from the book he had read in later generations: "To the east of Tongguan, Lingbao is south of Huashan, north of the Yellow River, and in between is a 70-li-long narrow mountain road, which is the only way to exit Tongguan. If the enemy sets up elite troops on both sides of the mountain road, no matter how many soldiers we have, it will be difficult to escape destruction! According to my thinking, the enemy must set up elite troops on both sides of the mountain road, and Geshu Han's army will definitely fall into an ambush, leading to a disastrous defeat. Tongguan will not be preserved!"

  "After the bandit army occupied Luoyang, Chang'an was a must-take place! To take Chang'an, Tongguan had to be taken, otherwise even if An Lushan had 1 million soldiers and horses, he couldn't do anything about Chang'an! This can be seen from the fact that on the first day of the first month, An Lushan declared himself emperor in Luoyang, and on the eleventh day, he ordered his son An Qingxu to lead an army to attack Tongguan, and later personally attacked Tongguan! However, Tongguan was a natural barrier that the bandit army could not easily take. Geshu Han adopted the correct strategy of defending the pass without going out of the city to meet the enemy, thus avoiding Tongguan from falling into the hands of the enemy, and holding out against the bandits for more than six months!"

  "These six months of defense are enough to prove the correctness of the strategy of only defending and not attacking! The enemy army, seeing that a strong attack cannot be achieved, will definitely adopt a clever plan to take the pass, using old and weak soldiers as bait to lure our main force out of the pass to fight! Father ordered Geshu Han to lead the army out to battle, which is exactly what the enemy had planned. If we don't change the order and let Geshu Han return to Tong Pass, the great disaster will come, and Tong Pass will be lost! Father, you must think thrice! If Tong Pass falls, Chang'an will definitely not be safe, and if Chang'an is not safe, our Yang family may suffer a calamity, and there will be no one who can save us!"

  Yang Qi spoke very clearly and reasonably, Yang Guozhong's heart was moved by Yang Qi's words, but the expression on his face changed rapidly, with a feeling of fear rising up, no longer angry at his son's reckless words, but he didn't say anything, just had a thoughtful look.

  To be honest, some of what Yang Kai said was something he had thought about before, but most of it was something he had never thought about.

  After An Lushan's rebellion, he and Emperor Xuanzong both held a disdainful attitude, thinking that as long as the imperial edict was issued and the royal army moved, the rebel forces would soon become disunited and the rebellion would be quickly put down.

  But the cruel fact proved that their initial idea was wrong, the rebel army's offensive was unstoppable, and there was no decent resistance wherever they went. Even Feng Changqing, a famous general with few defeats, suffered consecutive defeats, and after joining forces with Gao Xianzhi, he only dared to retreat to Tongguan and did not dare to launch an attack. He repeatedly petitioned the court to agree to their garrison in Tongguan without fighting, waiting for the arrival of the kings from all over the country.

  However, Yang Guozhong still believed that this was just the rebel army's luck, and the court had not made adequate preparations in advance, failing to deploy heavy troops inside the pass. In recent years, the court has emphasized external defense over internal defense, with most of its forces stationed on the borders. The area around Chang'an and Luoyang only had about 100,000 soldiers, all of whom were untested in battle and completely unable to match the fighting strength of the border armies. If it weren't for this situation, An Lushan's rebellion would not have been so successful.

  It was only after the rebels' uprising that the imperial court launched a large-scale recruitment of young men to join the army, and soon recruited a large number of soldiers. The troops gathered at Tongguan had already exceeded 200,000, with more than 50,000 being elite soldiers skilled in combat. There were also tens of thousands of defenders inside and outside Chang'an City. Yang Guozhong believed that with these troops, he could defeat the rebels. It was precisely this confidence that allowed him to advise Emperor Li Longji to order Geshu Han's troops to leave Tongguan and go into battle.

  Moreover, with the successive victories in the north, according to the news from Luoyang, An Lushan is considering retreating from Luoyang and returning to defend Fanyang.

  Moreover, he was not afraid of Geshu Han's defeat, because he had already planted his trusted followers in Geshu Han's army. Bian Lingcheng, the supervisor of the army, was one of his most trusted men. After Geshu Han's defeat, Bian could take over the military power and continue to guard Tongguan, and successfully eliminate Geshu Han, who held a similar position as him in the court. Previously, he had successfully used his tactics to get rid of Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi, who had always looked down on him.

  Geshu Han had always been at odds with him and looked down on him. He wanted to take advantage of Geshu Han's defeat to get rid of this meritorious general as well.

  However, after listening to his son's analysis, he felt afraid. His son would not deceive him, and Yang Hui's analysis was very reasonable, making him unable to calm down. What if something unexpected happened, and if Geshu Han really lost Tongguan after the defeat, Chang'an would be in danger too. What Yang Hui said might really happen, and the Yang family would be destroyed!

  Yang Guozhong had already been moved by these words, Yang Hui was overjoyed and immediately continued: "Father, the loyalist troops from Longyou, Anxi and other places are all brave warriors on the border, they have the strength to fight against the rebels. When the loyalist troops from various places gather near Tongguan, we can engage in a decisive battle with the rebels! Therefore, as I see it now, we should reward the soldiers of each department, boost their morale, and give them more confidence to defend against the enemy, not allowing the bandits to occupy Tongguan and threaten Chang'an! Now we should strictly order Geshu Han to hold on to Tongguan and not come out, forcing the rebels to attack the city. The government army can take advantage of the natural barrier of Tongguan to consume the strength of the rebels, strike their morale, and force the rebels to retreat back to Luoyang! At the same time, we can let the court issue a comforting edict, promising to grant higher official positions to the rebel leaders, luring them to surrender, and dividing their forces! Father also knows that many things can be settled after autumn.

  "Hmm, my son's thoughts are indeed profound and far-reaching. As a father, I am deeply moved by what you said! However, the matter you mentioned is of great importance, and I need to think carefully before responding. After all, Geshu Han has already led his troops out of Tongguan to fight, and it's unrealistic to ask him to return immediately!" Yang Guozhong stroked his black mustache under his nose, his eyes shining with intelligence as he gazed at Yang Hui and asked meaningfully: "But what I find strange is that you never mentioned this aspect before. Why did you suddenly bring up so many insightful views this time? Views that ordinary people would not have thought of?"

  Yang Huiyi explained: "Father, I was afraid of being blamed by you before, so I didn't dare to say these thoughts. You also never asked me about these things! This time, after I got injured and fainted for two days, I had some strange dreams, saw many strange things, and understood a lot of things that I had never thought of before. It seemed like an old man with white beard told me something about Tongguan in my dream. After waking up, I thought a lot, including the court affairs before I fainted, which was after An Lushan's rebellion started. I also asked Yang Zheng about the current situation and the rebels' movements, and then I came up with these ideas! Father, this is what I thought of in a hurry, I don't want you to suffer, nor do I want myself to be beheaded, nor do I want our family members to all fall into disaster, leading to the destruction of our family. Please think thrice before acting!"

  "Now the rebel forces are strong, what Father needs to do is think of ways to keep the rebels out of Tongguan City and find a way to calm them down, rather than relying on force to eliminate them. There will be plenty of opportunities to strike back at our opponents later, but if Tongguan falls and Chang'an is lost, Father may be blamed by the Emperor and criticized by colleagues, and his chance to continue holding power in the imperial court may be gone! Father, think carefully!"

  Yang Guo's anxious appearance moved Yang Guozhong a bit, and also made the doubts that had just arisen in his heart disappear immediately. He didn't want his youngest son to worry so much either, so he leaned forward, stretched out his hand to stroke Yang Hui's head, and comforted him with a smile: "Hui'er is so concerned about national affairs, it's comforting for father! However, you're young and inexperienced, your thoughts are a bit too simple. Don't worry too much about these things! What you said, father will consider carefully, and let Geshu Han make good preparations! You just take care of your body, maybe the news of Geshu Han's great victory will come soon! The rebels under Tongguan City can't pretend to be defeated. If they pretend to be defeated, they won't be able to hold back their momentum. How can they withstand Geshu Han's 200,000-strong army's charge?"

  Yang Guozhong said this, Yang Hui felt a bit helpless and had an unspeakable anger, but he was still unwilling to give up and wanted to continue speaking. Just at this moment, a servant dressed in a hurry ran in, didn't report and rushed to the front of Yang Guozhong, knelt down with a thud, and loudly shouted: "Master, something big has gone wrong! Geshu Han's army was defeated, encountered bandit general Cui Qianyou's ambush at Lingbao, heavy casualties, almost the entire army was annihilated!"

  "What?" Yang Guozhong and Yang Hui were both shocked and stood up at the same time, their faces turned pale!