Chapter Ninety: Fall Back to Shanjun County

Wang Sili lost more than a hundred of his three thousand men, but the rest were all brought back into the city.

After settling those troops, Wang Sili hurried up to the battlements and reported the battle to Yang Xi. Yang Xi had already seen Wang Sili’s valor from the walls and praised him warmly to his face, saying that he would submit a memorial to the throne, detailing the heroic deeds of all the commanders and asking for imperial reward. In particular, the exceptional conduct of Wang Sili, Pang Zhong, and the others would be singled out and reported to the court, with a request for honors and rewards.

Wang Sili, who had long feared punishment from the court for defeat, was overjoyed.

The straw and boiling oil atop the walls were no longer being hurled down, but the fire in the defensive trench continued to burn, growing fiercer by the moment. The bamboo and wooden rafts the rebels had thrown in as makeshift bridges had already caught fire and were burning violently.

Because the rafts had all been made from wet bamboo and wood, they gave off thick smoke as they burned. The wind blew from west to east, sending billowing smoke straight into the rebel ranks, blotting out the sky and sun. Even from the walls, one could no longer make out what was happening among the enemy formations; only countless rebels could be seen fleeing in panic through the choking haze, growing ever more disordered.

By then, Wang Sili and Li Chengguang’s troops had already withdrawn entirely into the city, but the rebels, unable to see clearly, assumed the Tang army was still charging and slashing at them. Now and then, men in the smoke even turned upon one another in confusion.

The rebel assault had completely collapsed. No soldiers were any longer attacking the three gates of Tongguan, yet the Tang troops on the walls still dared not relax. The soldiers remained at their posts, fully alert, without stepping down to rest.

“Commander, that move of yours is ruthless indeed,” Li Fude, who had come to report, said with feeling. “The rebels have suffered a grievous loss. They won’t have the strength to attack the city again for at least several days.”

A faint trace of contempt appeared at the corner of Yang Xi’s mouth as he said lightly, “The rebels only thought of bamboo and wooden rafts as bridges. They never imagined those rafts would burn so fiercely. If they had filled the trench with layers of bamboo, wood, mud, and stones, we might not have been able to keep them beyond the trench. But even if they managed to cross it, they still would have been unable to storm Tongguan.”

Seeing the confidence on Yang Xi’s face as he spoke, the generals who came one after another to report the battle all felt different emotions stir within them. Yet they shared one thought: under Yang Xi’s command, Tongguan had been held.

After such repeated heavy blows, the rebels might no longer have the strength to attack. Even if they did attack again, they still would be unable to break Tongguan.

There were now more than sixty thousand soldiers in Tongguan, and reinforcements were still arriving steadily. When the city had only a little over ten thousand battered remnants, the rebels had still been unable to take it. With sixty or seventy thousand men holding a strong city, Tongguan was destined to remain unbroken.

“Report!”

A soldier came swiftly from afar, rushed up to the gate tower, and stopped before Yang Xi, gasping for breath as he said, “Commander, the rebels have already withdrawn!”

This soldier had run over from a beacon tower among the twelve linked forts between the east gate and the south gate. The area directly before the south gate was shrouded in dense smoke, making the enemy’s movements impossible to discern at a distance, but the smoke in the other directions was not so heavy, and the rebels’ movements could be seen clearly. The soldiers on the beacon tower had observed that the rebel rear guard was already retreating in the direction of the Han Tongguan stronghold, and had hurried over to report.

Yang Xi fixed his gaze into the distance, but still could not make out the rebels’ movements.

Soon after, soldiers from several other beacon towers among the twelve linked forts also came to report in succession: the rebel rear had withdrawn, hastening back toward the Han Tongguan stronghold, while the several tens of thousands of rebels near Han Tongguan itself were retreating along the road by which they had come.

From the reports coming from every direction, Yang Xi determined that after suffering this crushing blow, the rebels had finally been unable to hold on and had withdrawn. Still, he did not immediately order the troops on the walls to come down and rest, nor did he send any general out in pursuit. He wanted to wait until the situation became clear before making his decision.

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As it turned out, Yang Xi had been too cautious.

After suffering such a devastating defeat, the rebels began to crumble. Once Cui Qianyou informed An Qingxu, the latter was horrified and at once ordered the entire army to withdraw and retreat to Shan Commandery.

No one had foreseen such a turn. After setting out the battle plan and assigning their tasks, all An Qingxu had imagined was fierce combat beneath the city, his own troops storming up the walls of Tongguan after a grueling struggle and finally, at terrible cost, capturing the city. He had never expected that just as the assault had begun, the Tang army would spring another trap.

A sky-filling inferno turned countless soldiers into charred remains. The attacking formations immediately fell into confusion, and innumerable men were trampled and crushed to death by one another. Then, as the enemy sank into chaos, the Tang forces surged out from within the city and took advantage of the blaze to strike. Many soldiers fell beneath Tang blades, and the defensive line collapsed in an instant. Let alone mounting another assault, whether they could even withstand the Tang counterattack was doubtful. Fortunately, the Tang army had its own reservations and did not launch a large-scale pursuit; otherwise the consequences would truly have been unimaginable.

Fortunately, when An Qingxu ordered the assault, he had also assigned Tian Qianzhen, An Shouzong, and Li Guiren to support the flanks and rear. Otherwise, the Tang army’s full-force attack might truly have routed, even destroyed, their force of more than a hundred thousand men.

As An Qingxu fled swiftly from beneath Tongguan with his personal guard, he was still shaken with fear, and at the same time filled with self-reproach. The decision to attack today had been made far too hastily. He had never imagined that the Tang would use fire as their defense.

“This Yang Xi really is no ordinary man,” he muttered bitterly as he fled past the ruined Han Tongguan stronghold.

Yet once he reached Han Tongguan, An Qingxu stopped again. He could not simply abandon the troops under his command. Whatever the cost, he had to gather his men to guard against a Tang pursuit. If the Tang army dared to chase them from the city, he would not hesitate to set an ambush along the road and wait until the pursuers arrived before dealing them a lethal blow, just as had been done at Lingbao.

He also immediately ordered his trusted generals An Shouzong, Li Guiren, and Tian Qianzhen to lead their respective troops to ambush along another narrow mountain road west of Lingbao: partly to receive the forces from the rear, and partly to prepare for the possibility of ambushing a Tang army in pursuit, in hopes of turning the tide.

Cui Qianyou, after gathering the troops around him who had not fallen into disorder, also hastily withdrew from Tongguan, intending to join An Qingxu and then fall back to Shan Commandery.

Cui Qianyou still had thirty thousand men under his direct command. They had not suffered any major shock and remained intact as a formation. But behind them, there were still tens of thousands of troops in utter disarray who had yet to be gathered in; how many of them might make it back depended on fate. Like An Qingxu, Cui Qianyou was certain the Tang would surely pursue them. He planned to leave those troops behind and, with the men under his own direct command, set an ambush somewhere and strike back at the Tang army.

After meeting up, Cui Qianyou and An Qingxu immediately began discussing a plan.

Yet just as they were debating where to lay the ambush, a soldier arrived to report that the Tang army at Tongguan had not come out to pursue them.

“It seems Yang Xi knows he cannot leave the city in pursuit. He is only holding fast and waiting for reinforcements,” An Qingxu said furiously, flinging away the whip in his hand.

“Your Highness, then what should we do?” Cui Qianyou, terrified of being blamed after repeated defeats, asked cautiously.

“Retreat to Shan Commandery, and report the fighting at Tongguan to Father Emperor,” An Qingxu said. Then he paid Cui Qianyou no further mind, swung himself onto his horse, and galloped eastward.

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A historical novel by a friend, "Strategic Decisions in Republican China," Book Number: 2991985. Those who enjoy historical fiction may wish to take a look.