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

After the defeat of Yecheng, Guo Ziyi was recalled to Chang'an and placed in idleness. Suzong appointed Li Guangbi as the governor of Shuofang and deputy marshal of the army to preside over the wars in Hebei and Henan.

At this time, Shi Siming had led the main force of the rebel army south, successively captured Huazhou and Bianzhou, and headed straight for Luoyang - this prosperous city that was once the eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty was once again facing the crisis of falling.

When Li Guangbi arrived in Luoyang, the remaining Tang army consisted of only more than 10,000 people, most of whom were stragglers gathered after the defeat of Yecheng, and their morale was low.

The generals suggested "retreating to Tongguan and using the strategic location to resist the enemy", but Li Guangbi shook his head and rejected it: "If Luoyang is lost, the rebels can march straight to Chang'an. By then, the people will be in chaos and it will be even more difficult to deal with.

It would be better to retreat to Heyang, use the Yellow River as a barrier, confront the rebels, and wait for the right opportunity to launch a counterattack."

Heyang is located north of Luoyang and on the banks of the Yellow River. It is a transportation hub connecting Hebei and Henan. The city stores food and weapons transferred by the Tang army from Luoyang.

After Li Guangbi arrived, he immediately set about strengthening the city's defenses: he ordered all civilian ships along the Yellow River to be confiscated to prevent them from being used by the rebels; he built a crossbow platform in the south city of Heyang, equipped with hundreds of crossbows that could shoot and kill the enemy a hundred steps away; he also dug a deep trench in the north city and set up deer horns (pointed wooden fences) outside the trench to form a multi-layered defense system.

At the same time, he personally inspected the military camp, gave his own horses and armor to the meritorious soldiers, and shouted to the soldiers: "Although the rebels are numerous, most of them are looters."

"We are fighting to the death to protect our country!"

Seeing their commander act like this, the soldiers' morale gradually rose.

In October of the second year of Qianyuan, Shi Siming personally led 50,000 rebel troops to the outskirts of Heyang City and divided the troops into three routes.

One group attacked the southern city, one group attacked the northern city, and another group tried to force a crossing of the Yellow River to cut off the Tang army's food supply.

The rebels first launched a fierce attack on the south city. The soldiers pushed siege vehicles, set up ladders, and rushed towards the city wall under the cover of rain of arrows.

Li Guangbi was in command of the South City and ordered all the crossbows to fire at once. The crossbow arrows were as thick as spears, and one arrow could penetrate several rebels, and the rebel vanguard fell down in an instant.

Seeing that the strong attack was fruitless, Shi Siming sent his general Zhou Zhi to lead the army around to the north city and try to break through from the side.

Li Baoyu, the defender of the northern city and a fierce general under Li Guangbi, saw the rebels coming with such force that he deliberately sent someone to tell Zhou Zhi, "Our army has run out of food and fodder. We will surrender the city tomorrow."

Zhou Zhi believed it to be true and ordered to stop the siege, sending only a small number of soldiers to monitor the city.

That night, Li Baoyu led a suicide squad out of the city quietly, piled up firewood outside the rebel camp, and set it on fire at night.

When the fire broke out, the Tang army's death squad rushed into the camp with long swords in hand. The rebels were caught off guard and were thrown into chaos. Thousands of them were killed, and Zhou Zhi escaped with only the remnants.

Seeing that both sieges had failed, Shi Siming ordered a forced crossing of the Yellow River.

Li Guangbi had already set up an ambush on the bank of the Yellow River. As soon as the rebel ships reached the middle of the river, the Tang army ambushers set fire to the fireboats and sailed downstream.

The fire ships rammed into the rebel ships, and flames shot up into the sky in an instant. The rebel soldiers were either burned to death or fell into the Yellow River and drowned. The plan to cross the river completely failed.

After that, the Tang army and the rebels faced off in Heyang for several months. Shi Siming sent troops to harass the rebels several times, but each time they were repelled by Li Guangbi.

Li Guangbi took the opportunity to gather the remnants of the Tang army in the surrounding areas, and his military strength gradually recovered to more than 20,000 people.

In February of the first year of Shangyuan, Li Guangbi saw that the rebels were running out of food and supplies, so he ordered a counterattack.

He sent his general Pugu Huai'en to lead an army to attack the rebels' grain camp at night, burning tens of thousands of stones of the rebels' grain and grass; he also personally led the main force to attack from the south city and launched a decisive battle with the rebels.

Due to the shortage of food and fodder and low morale, the rebels were unable to withstand the fierce attack of the Tang army and were defeated on all fronts. Shi Siming was forced to lead the remnants back to Yecheng.

Although the victory in the Heyang Defense War failed to completely reverse the situation, it gave the Tang army a chance to catch its breath and temporarily curbed the rebels' momentum to move south.

After this battle, Li Guangbi's prestige increased greatly and he became the core general of the Tang army against the rebels - but the price of this victory was also heavy.

The counties and cities around Heyang were reduced to ruins due to the war, and the people were displaced. Although the Tang army won, it was still unable to recover the lost territory in Hebei.

After the Battle of Heyang, the Tang army and the rebels were engaged in a brief standoff.

In the first month of the second year of Shangyuan, Emperor Suzong Li Heng was eager to quell the rebellion, so he once again believed the slander of the eunuch Yu Chaoen and forced Li Guangbi to send troops to recapture Luoyang.

At that time, Shi Siming had gathered the main force of the rebel army at Mangshan near Luoyang, with a force of more than 60,000 people, and built a solid camp.

Li Guangbi believed that although the rebels' morale was not as high as before, they still had an advantage in terms of manpower and their camps were strong, so it was not advisable to rush into battle. He suggested "first harassing the rebels' food supply routes, and then engaging in a decisive battle after their morale was weakened."

However, Yu Chaoen put pressure on him in his capacity as "military supervisor", claiming that "His Majesty orders you to fight quickly and decisively. If you delay any further, you will be punished."

At the same time, Yu Chaoen secretly won over generals such as Pugu Huai'en and spread rumors that "Li Guangbi was afraid of fighting" to shake the morale of the army.

Li Guangbi had no choice but to order troops to be dispatched.

In February of the second year of the Shangyuan reign, the Tang army and the rebels engaged in a decisive battle at Mangshan. Li Guangbi had originally formulated a tactic of "luring the enemy deep into their territory and attacking them from both sides with ambush." ​​He would dispatch Pugu Huai'en to lead his troops into battle, feign defeat and retreat, luring the rebels into an ambush. He would then lead his main force on the flanks, waiting until the rebels entered the ambush before launching a fierce attack.

But after the battle started, Pugu Huai'en disobeyed military orders. Because he was dissatisfied with Li Guangbi's control and was secretly instigated by Yu Chaoen, he led his troops directly to the rebel camp instead of pretending to retreat.

Seeing that the Tang army took the initiative to attack, the rebels immediately launched a counterattack. Pugu Huai'en's troops were quickly surrounded and suffered heavy casualties.

Seeing that the situation was out of control on the flank, Li Guangbi hurriedly led the main force to attack and tried to rescue Pugu Huai'en, but was entangled by the main force of the rebels.

Upon seeing this, Shi Siming immediately ordered the rebels to split into two groups: one group would continue to besiege Li Guangbi's main force, while the other would go around to the rear of the Tang army and raid the Tang army camp.

The Tang army's main camp had few defenders and was quickly breached by the rebels, who seized all the food, fodder, and weapons in the camp.

Seeing their main camp breached, the Tang army's morale was shattered and they fled. Although Li Guangbi fought hard, he was unable to reverse the defeat and could only lead the remaining troops to break out and escape to Wenxi.

In the Battle of Mangshan, the Tang army lost nearly 30,000 men, and a large amount of weapons and food were seized by the rebels. Heyang and other places also fell into the hands of the rebels again.

The disastrous defeat in this battle was exactly the same as the Battle of Yecheng - both were caused by eunuchs' interference in military affairs and discord among generals.

After the war, Yu Chaoen again pushed the blame onto Li Guangbi and falsely accused Li Guangbi of "poor command" to Suzong. Although Suzong did not punish Li Guangbi, he recalled him to Chang'an and replaced him with Li Ruoyu as the governor of Shuofang.