Li Shimin's expression was as calm as still water in an ancient well.
If anything, he almost felt like laughing.
Hou Junji murmured under his breath, counting on his fingers.
"Two more… no, if we include Yan Zhenqing and Zhang Xun of Yongqiu, that makes four."
He let out a complicated sigh.
"Our Great Tang truly had… generals as numerous as clouds."
Wei Zheng, however, could not find such detached irony. His chest burned with indignation.
"This was already a complete encirclement," he said heavily.
"The rebels' internal divisions had blunted their edge."
"With such an overwhelming advantage, how could Tong Pass fall? How could it dare to fall?"
Wei Zheng was not a purely desk-bound scholar. He understood geography, defenses, and choke points. Chang'an, once breached, had no natural protection left.
And what would a rebel army—half-starved, half-mad, trapped for months—do once it poured into a capital that had enjoyed peace and luxury for over a century?
Wei Zheng didn't even want to imagine it.
Seeing the grief on his face, Fang Xuanling quietly reached out, pulling him aside and murmuring a few words of consolation.
Li Shimin stood perfectly straight, hands clasped behind his back, silent.
Li Jing, meanwhile, was already studying the map, his attention fixed on a single name.
Zhang Xun of Yongqiu.
His gaze swept back and forth across the terrain. After a moment, Li Jing spoke.
"Zhang Xun is defending Yongqiu. This place is too close to the rebel forces, and the terrain is wide and open—difficult to hold."
"If his goal is to block the rebels from moving south," Li Jing continued, "he should retreat to Songzhou instead. Two mountains press in on the city there, stripping the enemy of their geographical advantage…"
His voice trailed off.
Because he suddenly remembered something.
Songzhou's administrative seat—Songcheng County—had been renamed by none other than the emperor himself.
Before that rename, it had been called…
Suiyang.
Li Jing slowly looked up.
"Zhang Xun… is this Zhang of Suiyang?"
Li Shimin had already reached the same conclusion. He exhaled softly.
"The regional armies are all stationed on the frontiers," he said.
"The southeast has enjoyed peace for too long. This Zhang Xun likely raised local militias—volunteer fighters."
"Volunteer troops can't stand against a rebel army. Retreating from Yongqiu to Suiyang was inevitable."
He said it lightly, almost casually, but in his heart, he suspected something more.
Zhang Xun's withdrawal to Suiyang was probably not just tactical.
It was likely forced—dragged there by the collapse at Tong Pass.
As for how Tong Pass collapsed…
The light screen answered.
[Lightscreen]
[For An Lushan, the situation was clearer than it was even for Yan Zhenqing.
On the northern front, Guo Ziyi and Li Guangbi had beaten Shi Siming so badly that he barely escaped with his life, reduced almost to a commander without an army.
The rebel army's homeland was in Hebei. With Hebei under pressure, morale wavered. It was only a matter of time before someone openly shouted "Heaven punishes the traitor!"
On the southeastern front, the rebel general Zhang Tongwu was beheaded in battle by the county magistrate of Danfu. Another rebel, Yang Chaozong, was blocked by the governor of Dongping.
Reinforcements sent afterward—Li Huaixian, Linghu Chao, and more than ten thousand troops—were pinned down at Yongqiu by Zhang Xun, the county magistrate of Zhenyuan, unable to advance an inch.
On the southern front, the governor of Nanyang, Lu Jiong, and the governor of Yingchuan, Xue Yuan, led fifty thousand southern troops in fierce fighting against the rebel Wu Lingxun in Jingxiang.
Later still, Lai Tian—nicknamed "Iron Chewer"—reinforced the southern line, and the rebels were completely stalled.
The western front was Tong Pass.
Being stuck there for half a year had already drained An Lushan of all patience.
And yet—
At the moment An Lushan was most desperate, the Tong Pass he had failed to breach for six months…
Opened its gates on its own.
This was the moment when Yan Zhenqing, Guo Ziyi, Zhang Xun, and Lai Tian all shared the same reaction:
A match that should have been won by idling—so who was throwing the game?
As for Geshu Han, he was helpless.
The decision to leave the pass was not his.
It was made jointly by Emperor Xuanzong and the chancellor.
Yang Guozhong had once been Geshu Han's patron. Before the rebellion, the two had belonged to the anti–An Lushan camp.
But after Geshu Han gained power and forced Emperor Xuanzong to falsely execute An Sishun, Yang Guozhong grew wary.
He had no intention of becoming the next An Sishun.
Soon after, Yang Guozhong received a secret report:
Someone was urging Geshu Han to lead his army back to Chang'an and execute Yang Guozhong—thus stripping An Lushan of his "cleansing the court" justification.
Geshu Han neither confirmed nor denied it.
Yang Guozhong nearly lost his soul on the spot.
With Emperor Xuanzong's approval, Yang Guozhong raised thirteen thousand troops and stationed them at Bashang under his trusted subordinate Du Qianyun.
This force made Geshu Han deeply uncomfortable.
He memorialized the emperor, had the troops placed under Tong Pass command—and casually executed Du Qianyun, not even bothering to fabricate a charge.
These political struggles pushed Yang Guozhong's anxiety to its peak.
In the end, he exhausted every means to force Emperor Xuanzong to order Geshu Han out of Tong Pass.
This was the origin of Geshu Han's infamous "weeping march out of the pass."
Looking back, the true fuel that drove the An Lushan Rebellion to its climax was the collapse of trust.
An Lushan's betrayal made Xuanzong trust no one, leading him to execute Gao Xianzhi and Feng Changqing without hesitation.
Their deaths shattered Geshu Han's trust in the court, pushing him to seize power by any means necessary to avoid being constrained.
Geshu Han's actions destroyed Yang Guozhong's trust in him—ultimately forcing Geshu Han out of the pass.
Thus, a rebellion that should have been extinguished in half a year spiraled into an inferno that burned down the Tang golden age.]
"Only when times are dire does integrity reveal itself…"
Li Shimin murmured.
Then he snorted.
"Now I see it clearly. Chang'an was simply too comfortable."
"If this court had been in Luoyang instead—"
Zhangsun Wuji spoke softly,
"In the end, it was Yang Guozhong's twisted heart."
"If the chancellor had been someone like Zhang Jiuling or Yan Zhenqing, this scramble for power wouldn't have happened—and the rebellion wouldn't have either."
Everyone understood the unspoken truth.
Even if the court had been in Luoyang, the imperial guards would still have rotted just the same. If the rebels came, Xuanzong would merely have run a little farther.
The court's corruption stemmed from the chancellor.
And why did the chancellor rot?
Li Shimin, astonishingly relaxed, spoke bluntly:
"What is the An–Shi Rebellion? Why not call it the disaster left behind by Li Longji?"
He sighed again.
"Only now do I understand why later generations cursed him for not dying twenty years earlier."
In his mind, he saw the sculptures of the sleepless city of later ages—the layered platforms proclaiming the "Supreme Splendor" and the "Kaiyuan Golden Age."
Everything suggested that Xuanzong, early in his reign, was nothing like the man he became.
Like Li Shimin himself, Xuanzong had seized power as the Third Son, governed diligently, and pushed a century-old empire to its peak.
Then personally shoved it off the cliff.
A heretical thought rose uncontrollably in Li Shimin's mind:
Could Xuanzong have been… possessed?
…
"Could Xuanzong have been possessed by An Lushan's real father or something?"
Zhang Fei whispered.
That earned nothing but helpless laughter.
After the laughter faded, only sighs remained.
"To ruin such a perfect situation through private ambition…"
Liu Bei looked even more distressed than Li Shimin.
With no internal chaos, the Tang could have marched into Central Asia, competing directly with the so-called Black-Robed Caliphate.
Instead, ruler and ministers turned on one another, small schemes ignited great disasters, and national destiny snapped.
Liu Bei looked toward Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang returned a puzzled expression.
Liu Bei glanced again at his brothers and his officers, a question rising quietly in his heart:
Is treating people sincerely and using talent wisely really that hard?
Zhuge Liang, meanwhile, was already discussing plans with Zhao Yun.
"From what we see," Zhuge Liang said, "the Yong, Liang, and Longyou regions should be taken sooner rather than later."
Zhao Yun rare smiled.
"Military Advisor, why the sudden urgency?"
Zhuge Liang's tone held naked envy.
"With true heavy cavalry, even ten times our number could be faced head-on."
True heavy cavalry.
Not foot soldiers riding horses for transport. Not light raiders skirmishing at the edges.
This was one of their current dilemmas.
Chengdu produced silver—but not horses.
[ Lightscreen]
["Cui Qianyou of the Boling Cui clan," the screen announced,
"was perhaps the most controversial Tang general by record."]
Hou Junji barely reacted, simply committing another name to memory.
Li Shimin, however, was curious.
A great clan scion… actually serving Tang with loyalty?
But—
The screen continued.
[ Lightscreen]
[Cui Qianyou defeated the famed Feng Changqing at Luoyang.
Riding that momentum, he forced Gao Xianzhi to retreat without fighting.
At Lingbao, he crushed Geshu Han, briefly standing unrivaled.
How much of this was real ability—and how much was circumstance—was debatable.
Lingbao was a catastrophic defeat.
At the time, Tong Pass had eighty thousand elite border troops from Longyou and Hexi. In terms of soldier quality, the sides were evenly matched.
Geshu Han couldn't shift blame.
He had even predicted Cui Qianyou's ambush in advance.
So why not advance steadily?
Because Geshu Han had no time.
After leaving the pass, to communicate with Xuanzong, messages had to be sent back to Tong Pass, then forwarded to Chang'an.
Yang Guozhong, however, stood beside the emperor at all times.
The longer Geshu Han lingered outside the pass, the greater the chance his head—like Gao and Feng's—would end up hanging from the tower.
So he rushed.
And stepped straight into the ambush.
After the defeat, Geshu Han regrouped outside Tong Pass, intending to hold it—but his subordinate Huoba Guiren arrived and, without a word, bound him and delivered him to An Lushan.
With Geshu Han's fall, Tong Pass collapsed swiftly.
Xuanzong still declared in court:
"I will personally lead the campaign and capture An Lushan alive! All officials and citizens must be loyal to the nation!"
That very night, he fled Chang'an with Yang Yuhuan and a few favored sons.
The next morning, the court found the emperor gone.
Chang'an dissolved into chaos.
Officials fled.
Soldiers scattered.
In June of 756, the rebels entered Chang'an unopposed.
It was said that Yang Guozhong proposed burning the treasury during the escape, but Xuanzong refused, claiming the rebels would loot the people if they found no wealth.
Yang Guozhong then suggested destroying bridges west of Chang'an, but Xuanzong again refused, citing mercy.
In truth, later generations likely whitewashed this.
When you're fleeing in the dead of night, terrified of being spotted by your own ministers, you don't stop to worry about bridges.]
"Emperor Xizong simply repeated Xuanzong's mistakes!"
Li Shimin ground his teeth.
A ruler who had conquered from horseback could accept dying in battle.
He could not accept abandoning ministers and people.
Why didn't these descendants remember the Wei River standoff—retreat first, then sharpen blades and return for revenge?
What kind of emperor flees faster than commoners?
Hou Junji sighed deeply.
"Slow victory leads to death.
Fast battle leads to death."
"Two roads," he said bitterly.
"Both end the same."