Chapter 628: The Spring Offensive

The burning of the forage stores had a far greater impact on An Lushan than the explosion of the gunpowder factory. Over the course of a winter, nearly half of his 300,000 warhorses starved to death. The Khitans and Xies also claimed a shortage of forage and only agreed to supply their own armies. Had Shi Siming not borrowed 800,000 loads of forage from the Puguo tribe, An Lushan’s Yuzhou cavalry might have vanished forever.

Due to initial setbacks and consecutive defeats at the start of his rebellion, An Lushan’s forces were reduced by 100,000 men. With a shortage of warhorses and fewer soldiers, and after occupying the entire region of Hebei, he changed his strategy, granting his generals unlimited authority to recruit troops, though they were responsible for providing their own funds.

Currently, there were six generals with such authority: Shi Siming, Li Huaixian, Tian Chengsi, Cai Xide, Li Guiren, and An Lushan’s son, An Qingxu. Each of these six generals commanded large forces. Shi Siming led 80,000 troops stationed in Hengzhou and Dingzhou. Li Huaixian remained in Yuzhou, Tian Chengsi in Weizhou, Bozhou, and Xiangzhou, Cai Xide in Cangzhou and Dezhou, Li Guiren in Zhaozhou and Xingzhou, while An Qingxu’s troops were stationed along the lines of Jizhou, Tanzhou, and Pingzhou.

With An Lushan’s approval, these six men recruited troops extensively in their territories, extracting funds and supplies from the local population. Only about 30–40% of the people in Hebei had escaped, and their wealth was almost entirely plundered by An Lushan’s army. Especially the wealthy families were drained of everything, becoming utterly destitute.

Cruel men like Cai Xide ordered his troops to massacre the people of Nanpi, Rao’an, and Gonggao counties, seizing their wealth and raping women. All the men in these counties were taken into the army as soldiers, without exception—whether they were sixty-year-olds or thirteen- or fourteen-year-olds. As a result, Cai Xide’s army grew from 50,000 to 80,000 men, making it the fourth-largest force in the Yan army.

Over the winter, aside from Yuzhou, which still retained some vitality, the rest of Hebei’s counties were filled with suffering people, enduring hunger and cold. With no food, they survived by digging for wild vegetables and peeling tree bark. Hebei at that time was like a gaunt patient—left with nothing but a skeleton, its flesh long drained, unable to yield any more resources.

The soldiers of the Yan army began to grow dissatisfied, as did the Khitans and Xies who fought for An Lushan. Especially the Xies, for whom An Lushan had promised a noble woman from Luoyang—yet they still saw no sign of Luoyang. Tensions arose in the Xie camps.

An Lushan had no choice but to order his generals to surrender thousands of women to the Xi people’s camp to pacify them, but this only provided temporary relief. An Lushan knew that the key issue was that the Hebei region could no longer sustain his hundreds of thousands of troops. Now that the long winter had passed, it was time to send troops to Hedong.

In the Prince of Yan’s palace, generals from various places gathered together. Except for Shi Siming, who was recuperating in Youzhou, and Li Huaixian, who was already in Youzhou, the rest of the generals had come from other places.

In the center of An Lushan’s meeting hall stood a huge sand table, five zhang long and three zhang wide, covering both the Hebei and Hedong regions. The table was covered with a silk cloth, hiding what was beneath.

An Lushan sat tall in the center, wearing a golden helmet and gleaming golden armor. Usually, he wore ordinary clothes instead of armor, but once he donned it, it meant he was about to launch a military campaign. His six generals sat in two rows below him, and the hall was very quiet.

“After resting through the winter, it’s time to send troops out,” An Lushan said directly, stating the purpose of the meeting right away. Everyone had guessed this from his attire, so no one spoke. An Lushan nodded and glanced at Shi Siming. Seeing him pale and sickly, he realized Shi Siming had come to Youzhou to recover from illness. An Lushan felt somewhat displeased and asked, “Vice Marshal Shi, how is your illness?”

Shi Siming struggled to stand up and bowed, saying, “Your Highness, I am no longer seriously ill.”

Though he said this, his voice was weak, and it was obvious he was just trying to appease An Lushan and save face in front of everyone. If An Lushan really wanted him to go to war, he might not agree. More importantly, Shi Siming already had a record of defeat, so An Lushan no longer fully trusted him.

An Lushan frowned and instinctively glanced at Li Huaixian. Shi Siming immediately noticed this subtle change and was secretly pleased—this was exactly what he hoped for: having Li Huaixian sent to Hedong.

Shi Siming had also heard some rumors from the Prince of Yan’s palace that An Lushan might attack Hedong from three different directions, but he had no idea how the troops would be deployed or what the routes would be. He urgently needed to buy off An Lushan’s confidants to turn them into his informants, and Li Zhur was the perfect candidate. He was highly trusted by An Lushan and even allowed to stand guard by his bedside. Since An Lushan favored plump women, Li Zhur searched everywhere for them for him, acting as his personal manager in that regard.

And Shi Siming had also learned that this Li Zhurou was extremely greedy for money, but he was very cautious and wouldn’t easily accept money from outsiders for fear of losing An Lushan’s trust. That’s why Shi Siming planned to target Li Zhurou’s uncle, Li Zui, and use him as a bridge to reach Li Zhurou.

Shi Siming could tell that An Lushan didn’t want to send him anymore. He sat there silently, looking sickly. At that moment, An Lushan stood up and, with the help of his confidant Li Zhurou, walked over to the sand table. With a wave of his hand, two guards immediately came forward—one on each side—and slowly lifted the silk cloth covering the sand table, revealing its true appearance.

“Come and take a look!”

An Lushan removed the small flag of Shi Siming that had been planted in Jingxing and replaced it with Li Huaixian’s flag. Li Huaixian had previously defeated Guo Ziyi’s army, earning An Lushan’s full trust to the point that he didn’t even blame him for burning the fodder stores; instead, he sacrificed a lower-ranking general as a scapegoat.

Everyone gathered around. An Lushan took a long wooden rod and pointed to the area north of Hedong. “Right now, there are three large armies of the Northern Tang in Hedong. To the north, in Yunchou and Daizhou, is Lei Wanchun’s force of 15,000 soldiers. The troops here are few and not a serious concern.”

He moved the rod southward and firmly tapped Jinzhou. “What I’m really worried about is here. Jinzhou is occupied by Li Siyeh’s 50,000 troops from Anxi. These 50,000 are Li Qing’an’s elite forces. In addition, there are another 30,000 troops from Hexi and Longyou stationed in Jiangzhou, Luzhou, and Zezhou. In Henan, there are over 200,000 troops under Li Guangbi. What’s more critical is that we don’t have any boats to cross the river. There used to be a shipyard in Cangzhou, but some fool set it on fire. The shipbuilders were either killed or fled.”

At this point, An Lushan shot a sharp glance at Cai Xide. Cai Xide lowered his head in guilt, too afraid to speak. An Lushan snorted heavily and then pointed the rod at Taiyuan, saying to everyone, “Although Taiyuan has Guo Ziyi’s 80,000 troops, they are much easier to deal with than the Anxi troops. So this time, I’ve decided to attack Taiyuan and aim to capture it within a month.”

He scanned everyone’s faces one by one before giving the order, “We’ll divide our forces into two groups. Li Guiren will lead 50,000 troops along the Fukou Pass as the southern force, feigning an attack on Luzhou. His task is to hold back Li Siyeh’s Anxi troops. If he sends his main force north to support Taiyuan, you should launch attacks on Luzhou and Zezhou, burning, killing, and looting to force Li Siyeh to move south.”

He pointed at Jingxing again with a wooden stick and said to Li Huaixian, Cai Xide, and An Qingxu, “The three of you will lead 150,000 troops through Jingxing to march on Taiyuan. An Qingxu will be the main commander, while Li Huaixian and Cai Xide will serve as his deputy commanders on the left and right. The attack from the south is a feint; your attack will be the real one. Starting from the day we enter Jingxing, I expect to visit Taiyuan in person after a month.”
The group replied in unison, “As you command!”
“Good! Now go back and organize your troops. In ten days, the entire army will gather in Youzhou to launch the official campaign!”
……
Dust billowed inside Youzhou City, and the sound of horse hooves echoed like thunder as groups of cavalry rushed outside. Tian Chengsi, Cai Xide, and An Qingxu each left the city with their personal troops. The somewhat lazy atmosphere in the city, caused by a long winter, suddenly became tense. Many people realized that a major battle was about to break out.
In a simple house south of the city, Ji Sheng was discussing the purchase of medicine with a middle-aged man. The man’s name was Wei Ruiqun, a Han Chinese military doctor in the Yan army. Tall and thin, he had originally been the chief physician at a pharmacy in Youzhou. After the Miao Shou Hui Chun Tang incident last year, all pharmacies in Youzhou were implicated. His pharmacy was shut down, its medicinal materials seized, and he was forced to serve as a military doctor in the camp.
Wei Ruiqun, over forty years old, was conscripted into the army. He had no loyalty to An Lushan. Moreover, with many factions within the Yan army and lax discipline, everyone was focused on plundering for wealth. Wei Ruiqun also hoped to make some money to marry off his son, buy a house, and save for his old age.
However, due to his age and weakness, he had no chance to participate in plundering. He could only rely on smuggling An Lushan’s military medical supplies, secretly selling them to patients in small amounts, risking execution if discovered. It took him several months to earn only three or four guan. This frustrated him greatly. Ji Sheng was his first major customer, so he tried his best to please him, fearing the deal might fall through.
“I have 800 pills of military powder and 200 sets of wound medicine, all made from high-quality ingredients. At market price, these are worth at least 300 guan. If Young Master Ji buys them all, I can give them to you at a lower price—250 guan.”
Ji Sheng took out two gold ingots and said with a smile, “This is 20 taels of gold. Here you go; no change needed.”
Wei Ruiqun was overjoyed. The other party was giving him gold—20 taels no less! Gold and silver were the most scarce and valuable items in Hebei. On the black market, one tael of silver or one Anxi silver coin could exchange for 2 guan, while gold was even more expensive—one tael of gold could exchange for 30 guan. Especially among wealthy families, every household had money caches. 30 guan weighed 200 jin—too heavy to carry or hide. The only option was to convert it into gold or silver.

Ji Sheng gave him twenty taels of gold, which might be worth only two hundred guan in Chang’an, but six hundred guan in Hebei. It seemed this man was not a merchant; how could a merchant not understand such things? But Wei Ruqun no longer cared. Those twenty taels of gold could save his family’s lives, so he immediately took the gold and shouted, “Lu Er, bring your father’s medicine bag.”