Li Shimin faked his death? Then I will be powerful enough to conquer the world!

In September of the same year, the Tang army, led by Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi, recaptured Chang'an and then marched eastward, heading straight for Luoyang.

After An Qingxu learned the news, he was so frightened that he fled from Luoyang overnight and fled to Yecheng with the remaining troops.

Before leaving, he ordered the burning of the Luoyang Palace. The flames illuminated the Luo River red. The people hid in the ruins crying, but were slaughtered wantonly by the rebels. The escape of this "false emperor" became another catastrophe for the people of Luoyang.

……

An Qingxu knelt in the snow on the city wall of Yecheng. His naked upper body was frozen purple, blood was oozing from his cracked skin, and his forehead was pressed against the cold bricks.

The north wind blew snowflakes into his face, but he didn't even dare wipe them off. He just cried out at the top of his lungs, "Prince Shi! I beg you! Send reinforcements quickly! Once we pacify the Tang army, I will offer you all of Hebei!"

Below the city wall, the accumulated water from the Zhang River was still rising, with rotting corpses floating in the turbid water. The smell of burnt bark cooked by the defenders mixed with the stench of corpses filled the air over this isolated city that had been under siege for four months.

The envoys he sent for help had returned empty-handed for the thirteenth time, and Shi Siming's army was still stationary in Weizhou, a hundred miles away.

On the tenth day after the Tang army diverted the Zhang River to flood the city, the accumulated water in the city had already overflowed halfway up the city wall. Most of the rebel barracks were flooded, and the soldiers could only huddle in the arrow towers on the city wall.

An Qingxu climbed up the city wall in ankle-deep mud. The gilded jade belt around his waist was soaked black, but he still tightly grasped the jade seal that symbolized the "Emperor of Great Yan."

He looked at the long stretches of tents stretching out from the Tang army camp in the distance. He suddenly drew the scimitar from his waist and slashed at a skinny soldier beside him who was gnawing on tree bark. "Why can't you cook food? What's the point of me keeping a bunch of you useless people?"

The soldier's screams stopped abruptly, and blood splattered in the accumulated water, instantly dyeing it dark red.

The surrounding defenders were trembling with fear, and no one dared to look up - since the granary ran out last month, Yecheng has fallen into a desperate situation of "people eating each other".

First, the elderly, the weak, women and children were dragged out of people's homes and slaughtered as "military rations"; later, even the wounded soldiers could not escape the bad fate. The "dried meat" hanging on the city walls were all comrades who had fought side by side with them in the past.

The rebel general Cui Qianyou limped to An Qingxu, leaning on his broken sword.

His left leg was shot through by an arrow from the Tang army while he was defending the city. The wound had already festered, but not even a piece of clean cloth could be found.

"Your Majesty," Cui Qianyou said hoarsely, kneeling in the mud. "If this continues, we'll kill each other before the Tang army can break through the city!"

"I am willing to lead the army as the vanguard, escorting Your Majesty to break through the siege and go to Fanyang to seek refuge with Shi Siming. Even if I have to be temporarily subordinate to him, it is better than waiting to die here!"

An Qingxu suddenly kicked Cui Qianyou and knocked him down into the water. The mud flowed down his helmet and into his eyes, but he ignored it and pointed at Cui Qianyou's nose and cursed: "You want me to bow to that Khitan barbarian?"

"Back when An Lushan was in power, he dared to withhold taxes from Fanyang. Now that I'm in trouble, he wishes I were dead! Have you been colluding with him all along, hoping to sell out your master for personal gain?"

Cui Qianyou struggled to his feet, his chest heaving violently. "Your Majesty! I have been following General An Lushan in his uprising for five years now. How could I betray my master for personal gain? But Shi Siming commands an army of 100,000 men, and he is the only one who can save Yecheng!"

"Save?" An Qingxu suddenly burst into laughter, his voice filled with despair. "He wants to wait until both the Tang army and I are defeated, and then reap the benefits!"

"When I killed my father to seize power, he held his troops in Fanyang; now that I am trapped in Yecheng, he is watching the fire from the other side of the river - do you think he will sincerely save me? He wants me to die so that he can take my place!"

An Qingxu's heart had long wavered, but he feared Shi Siming would seize power, yet he couldn't let go of his dignity as the "Emperor of Great Yan." He remembered how An Lushan had often pinned him to the ground and beaten him, calling him "cowardly as a pig, worse than a dog." If he yielded to Shi Siming now, wouldn't that confirm his father's assessment? This ridiculous pride led him to repeatedly refuse to break out, pushing the defenders of Yecheng into the abyss.

Compared with Cui Qianyou's forbearance, the rebel general Yin Ziqi chose a more cruel approach.

His face was covered in flesh, his left hand gripped a bloody scimitar, his right hand holding a string of human heads. He strode into An Qingxu's tent and said, "Your Majesty, I have just found a batch of 'military rations' from the west of the city. It's enough for the defenders to eat for three days!"

An Qingxu looked at the people tied up on the ground, including the elderly, women, and several young children, their faces full of fear.

He subconsciously turned his face away, but Yin Ziqi grabbed him and said, "Your Majesty, we are in chaos and war right now. The people are our 'food and fodder'. Why are you so soft-hearted? If we don't eat them, we will starve to death by the Tang army sooner or later!"

"But they are also people of Dayan..." An Qingxu's voice became smaller and smaller.

"Subjects?" Yin Ziqi sneered, picked up a boy of seven or eight, and put a scimitar to his neck. "Your Majesty, have you forgotten? When we captured Luoyang, didn't these subjects still call us traitors? Now that they are useful, they should sacrifice themselves for Great Yan!"

The boy's mother, Zhang, rushed over like a madman, hugged Yin Ziqi's legs and cried, "General, please let my child go! I am willing to die in his place, I am willing to die in his place!"

Yin Ziqi kicked Zhang away, swung his scimitar, and the boy's head rolled to the ground.

Zhang looked at the head on the ground and suddenly stopped crying. She crawled over and hugged the boy's body, with a strange smile on her face: "The Tang army will be here soon. You traitors will all go to hell..."

Yin Ziqi was furious and hacked Zhang to death with a single blow. He then shouted to the soldiers, "Take this 'rations' down, cook them, and distribute them to the various camps! Anyone who dares to hide them will be killed without mercy!"

The people could no longer bear it, and that night hundreds of people secretly organized themselves, armed with hoes and kitchen knives, and attacked the rebels' food supply routes at night.

Although they were unarmed and were quickly suppressed by the rebels, more and more civilians joined in - they would rather die in battle than become "food" for the rebels.

After An Qingxu learned about this, he ordered that "anyone who participated in the rebellion would be executed along with his entire family."

But when the soldiers piled the bodies of the rebellious civilians in front of the city wall, the defenders on the wall lowered their heads - many of their families also died in the massacre.

As Yecheng fell into dire straits, Shi Siming was sitting in the Jiedushi Mansion in Weizhou, drinking fine wine and looking at a map in his hand. He was dressed in the purple robe of the Tang army, and around his waist hung the golden seal of "King of Guiyi" bestowed by Tang Suzong, but the ambition in his eyes could not be hidden.

An Qingxu's thirteenth envoy knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly: "Prince Shi, Yecheng is almost unable to hold on. His Majesty said that if you are willing to send reinforcements, he is willing to give you the throne! Please have mercy and save our brothers in Yecheng!"

Shi Siming put down his wine glass, walked slowly to the messenger, and kicked him on the shoulder: "Go back and tell An Qingxu that I am attacking Taiyuan. As soon as I pacify Hedong, I will immediately lead my army to rescue Yecheng."

"Let him hold on for a few more days and don't act rashly."

The messenger kowtowed hurriedly: "Thank you, Prince Shi! Thank you, Prince Shi! I will go back and report to Your Majesty!"

But as soon as the envoy left, Shi Siming sneered at his trusted general Zhou Zhi, "Hold on? How many days can he hold out? The Zhang River is flooding the city, and our food and fodder are gone. Within a month, Yecheng will fall."

"When the time comes, we will lead our army to attack again. We will be able to subdue An Qingxu's remaining troops and defeat the Tang army in one fell swoop while they are exhausted. This is the perfect strategy."

Zhou Zhi asked in confusion, "Your Majesty, Emperor Suzong of Tang has conferred upon you the title of Prince of Guiyi and appointed you Governor of Fanyang. Why would you risk rebelling against the Tang?"

Shi Siming picked up the golden seal on the table and tossed it lightly. It landed on the ground with a crisp sound. "Prince of Guiyi? Jiedushi of Fanyang? These are just delaying tactics used by Li Heng! After he pacifies An Qingxu, he will come after me next."

"An Lushan was so powerful back then, but he ended up dead. I, Shi Siming, will not repeat his mistakes."

He paused and continued, "I was born in Khitan. In my early years, I made a living by stealing horses. I have achieved my current status entirely through my own calculations."

"An Lushan trusted me, but I remained silent after his death; Li Heng wanted to use me, but I pretended to obey him but secretly disobeyed him."

"In these troubled times, only those who hold military power can survive."