Chapter 634: The Bear-Man’s Siege of the City

After capturing the military garrison at Chengtian, the Yan army advanced relentlessly, burning, killing, and looting along the way. Shi’ai County and Shouyang County were completely razed, with thousands of civilians who refused to evacuate being slaughtered. The magistrate of Shi’ai County, unable to escape in time, committed suicide, and both counties were set ablaze.

Three days later, 200,000 Yan troops arrived at the gates of Taiyuan City. By then, Guo Ziyi’s 80,000 troops had gathered inside Taiyuan, with an additional 50,000 civilian militia troops assisting in the defense. Guo Ziyi adopted a strategy of fortifying the city and clearing surrounding areas, raising drawbridges high, ready to engage in a protracted defense battle against the Yan forces.

According to An Lushan’s strategic plan, An Qingxu’s 200,000 troops were the main force attacking Hedong, while Li Guiren led 50,000 of his troops through Fokou Pass to launch a feint attack on Luzhou, thereby distracting Li Siyeh’s Anxi army. As An Qingxu led his main forces forward, Li Guiren’s 50,000 troops also crossed Fokou Pass and entered Hedong. Unlike their previous move north to She County, this time Li Guiren’s army headed straight west to attack Lucheng County.

Li Guiren was a Xixia leader who adopted a Han name—Li Guiren—after submitting to the Tang dynasty. On the surface, he obeyed the Tang court, but inwardly he was fierce and cruel, constantly seeking to plunder the wealth and women of the Central Plains. Standing eight feet tall with a strong build and immense strength, he was one of An Lushan’s most formidable generals, nicknamed “the Bear-Man” in the army.

The generals under An Lushan all had distinct nicknames. Besides Li Guiren being called the Bear-Man, Shi Siming was known as “the Falcon” due to his yellowish, thin hair and sinister gaze. Cai Xide was called “the Wild Wolf” for his brutality and coldness, while Tian Chengsi was dubbed “the Sly Fox” for his cunning.

Li Guiren commanded 50,000 troops, mainly composed of the Yeluohe and tribes from the Six Prefectures—troops made up of Khitans and Xixia people. These were among the most fierce and brutal forces in the Yan army. The 9,000 Yeluohe troops were also part of Youzhou’s elite cavalry, representing the finest of the Yan army. In the Xixia language, “Yeluohe” meant “valiant warrior.” An Lushan placed great importance on these Yeluohe troops, even declaring them his adopted sons.

Thus, although Li Guiren had only 50,000 troops, his force was considered the most elite among all the Yan army units. An Lushan allowed his generals to recruit more soldiers, but Li Guiren refused. He believed the Han people were weak and that recruiting them would only tarnish his reputation and weaken his combat strength, so he maintained his force of 50,000 troops.

Another characteristic of Li Guiren was his practice of using warfare to sustain his army. Whenever he arrived in a new place, he would allow his soldiers to engage in rampant plundering and rape, using this method to boost morale. Though extremely cruel, it was indeed very effective for his troops. Before this campaign, Li Guiren promised all his soldiers that each could capture ten women to take back to their tribe—only those taken back counted; those raped and killed on the spot were not included.

Li Guiren had two deputy generals: General An Shouzhong and the Turkic A Shina Congli. Both were formidable warriors and could be considered his right-hand men. Li Guiren led his massive army westward. Half of his forces were cavalry, allowing for extremely fast progress. He divided his army into three groups: A Shina Congli led 10,000 cavalry as the vanguard, while Li Guiren himself led 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry as the main force, and An Shouzhong led 10,000 infantry as the rear guard.

Twenty li away from Lucheng County, a messenger rushed over to report, “General, the magistrate of Lucheng County has led a hundred elders out of the city to surrender. A Shina asks what to do with them.”

Li Guiren stared coldly ahead. From his rock-like lips came two words: “Slaughter the city!”

In Li Guiren’s mind, there was no such thing as surrender without killing—only the difference between being fed and starving. Those who were fed could be spared temporarily until hunger struck again. But now, his soldiers were starving to the point of madness.

The magistrate of Lucheng County never imagined that his humiliating surrender with the elders would yield no result. They knelt naked on the road outside the city, holding their official seals in their hands, while the officials and elders behind him held pottery jars filled with soil. He pleaded with the Yan army to spare the people of the city out of respect for their sincere surrender. But what met them was a deluge of cavalry and murderous swords. The Yan cavalry rushed forward like an avalanche, sweeping over them. Swords severed the magistrate’s head. The hundred elders cried out in despair, but the warhorses trampled them mercilessly to death. Tens of thousands of horses rushed over them, turning their bodies into pulp.

Lucheng County instantly became a city of hell. Tens of thousands of men and women inside became lambs ready for slaughter. By the time Li Guiren’s main force arrived, Lucheng County had turned into an earthly purgatory. The 40,000-strong army began frenzied plundering and rape. Screams and cries of pain filled the air, with severed heads everywhere. The more beautiful women were forced to lie naked on barbarian beds under the threat of bloody swords, subjected to serial rape by nearly a hundred barbarian soldiers, only to die in the end.

For a full five hours, the brutality and lust of the Khitans and Xis consumed the entire city.
……
Li Guiren did not enter the city; his camp was set up outside. As night fell, soldiers returning with loot gradually made their way back to camp, their horses laden with bags of valuables. Women were tied to the horses, most in tattered clothes, many completely naked. As night descended and bonfires were lit, groups of soldiers gathered around them, roasting meat, drinking, and making tremendous noise. They forced hundreds of captured women to apply makeup and dance to entertain them, and when they were in high spirits, they would drag the women into the crowd……
According to the customs of the Khitans and Xis, the best spoils were to be given to their leaders. Li Guiren’s tent was filled with gold, silver, jewels, and over twenty young and beautiful women.
Li Guiren chose the five most beautiful women, while the rest were given to his personal guards. In a side tent, more than three hundred muscular soldiers, with their upper bodies bare, surrounded the twenty women with lecherous smiles. The women, like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, could neither escape nor die, being tied to benches and raped in turn by the soldiers.
“Lord, I’ve already served you over thirty times; I can’t take it anymore. Please let me rest for a while!”
One woman cried out in pleading, but only faced even more brutal abuse……
In a corner of the tent, a short boy hid himself, with delicate features, curled up like a cat. No soldiers went to question him, as everyone knew he was reserved for their personal guard commander. The boy’s father was the magistrate of Lucheng County; he and his mother had been captured. The woman who had cried out in pleading was his father’s favorite concubine, now unconscious.
Although small in stature, the boy was already twelve years old. It seemed to him as if he could hear his mother’s cries, right next door. Suppressing his grief and anger, he quietly hid a dagger left by a soldier under himself and slowly moved forward. All the guards were focused on the twenty naked women; none noticed him.
At that moment, a soldier walked past him, turning his back, covering him. Seizing the opportunity, the boy rolled away and slipped through a gap under the tent into the next tent, hitting a wooden box.
He slowly used the dagger to cut the ropes binding his hands. Then he heard his mother’s cries. He peeked up and was shocked—his mother was hanging naked, upside down, in the middle of the main tent.

Three more women were hanging in the air in the same manner. In the center of the tent stood a man resembling a black bear—tall, covered in hair, with loose hair and bare lower body. He wore iron armor, looking like a demon, extremely fierce. The boy was so scared he almost fainted. By then, the man had already abused one of the women and strode toward the boy’s mother. The woman trembled with fear as the man grabbed her legs, grinned viciously, and squeezed her buttocks twice. “This woman is fat, ripe, and delicate—my favorite!” Suddenly, he pulled her legs apart from behind, and with a crack of bones, the woman screamed and collapsed unconscious. Seeing his mother suffer such abuse, the boy bit his lips until they bled. Li Guiren cursed violently, “Damn it, are Han women really that fragile?” Disgusted, he sat down on a wooden box, breathing heavily. He never expected there to be a boy hiding behind him; his thick legs almost touched the boy’s face. Initially terrified and on the verge of screaming, the boy then saw a leg covered in dark hair, as thick as the wooden post used to tie horses outside the tent. Seeing his mother covered in blood, he felt an overwhelming rage—he wanted revenge for his mother! Lying on his side, he stared fixedly at the hairy leg, recalling what the doctor had said when treating him: “No matter how tall a person is, their roots are in their feet. Two meridians run through the body; if they break, the body collapses.” Slowly, he raised the dagger and suddenly shouted, stabbing fiercely at his Achilles tendon. Just as Li Guiren stood up, he felt a searing pain in his right heel. Screaming in pain, he turned around and saw a thin boy with a hateful, pale face. The boy screamed again and stabbed at his lower body with the dagger. Seeing blood flowing from his right heel and the intense pain, Li Guiren could no longer stand. Filled with rage, he grabbed the boy, twisted his neck like a chick, and killed him on the spot. After taking a few steps, Li Guiren felt weak all over and fell to the ground with a thud. His right leg had no strength left. In terror, he shouted loudly, “Someone help!” … Li Guiren was injured by a boy in Lü County; his right Achilles tendon was severed, leaving him unable to ride or fight, turning him into a disabled man who could only walk with a cane.

Furious, Li Guiren ignored An Lushan’s order not to advance deep into Hedong. He ordered his army to march south toward Shangdang County, the administrative center of Luzhou, destroying everything in their path. At that time, Li Siyue’s Anxi Army was still in Jinzhou, and Shangdang County had a 6,000-strong Northern Tang garrison led by Tian Qianzhen, a general who had once surrendered to Li Qingan. Li Guiren vowed to capture Tian Qianzhen personally and hand him over to An Lushan. When he was still 40 li away from Shangdang County, news arrived that Wei Boyu, a senior general of the Anxi Army, had led 10,000 troops to capture Fuxi City at the entrance to Hedong via the Fukou Pass, cutting off Li Guiren’s retreat. Another Anxi Army general, Xi Yuanqing, led 10,000 troops to Zhezhou, where they joined forces with the 8,000 defenders there, blocking another route back to Hebei via the Bai Pass. By then, the main force of 40,000 troops under the command of Li Siyue, the deputy commander of the Anxi Army, had entered Luzhou from Jinzhou and stationed themselves at Liangmazhai, encircling Li Guiren’s army. …… (Lao Gao has studied some materials; the brutality of the rebels during the An Lushan Rebellion is simply unimaginable. In this chapter, Lao Gao only touches on a little bit to give readers a general idea. Since the An Lushan Rebellion is being discussed, certain aspects are inevitable.)