Lee Kwang Pil defeats Shi Siming

CharoenChaoen blamed Guo Ziyi for the defeat. The Tang Emperor Su Zong listened to Yuyao and removed Guo Ziyi from the post of Shuo Fang Festival Minister and let Li Guangbi take over Guo Ziyi's post.

At this time, there was another internal strife among the rebels. Shi Siming killed An Qingxu in Yecheng and made himself emperor of Great Yan, reorganized his men, and attacked the Luoyang side.

When Li Guangbi arrived at Luoyang, the Luoyang officials were a bit scared when they heard that Shi Siming's army was fierce, and some advocated retreating to Tongguan. Li Guangbi said, "Now both sides are evenly matched, if we retreat, the enemy will be more rampant, so why not transfer our army to Heyang (present-day Meng County, Henan Province), where we can enter to attack and retreat to defend."

Li Guangbi ordered all the officials and civilians to evacuate Luoyang and brought his troops to Heyang, which had become an empty city by the time Shi Siming entered Luoyang. When Shi Si Ming entered Luoyang, it was an empty city. Shi Si Ming had no people and no food, and he was afraid of Li Guangbi's attack, so he took his troops out of the city and built a position in the south of Heyang to confront Li Guangbi's Tang army.

Li Guangbi is a veteran who has been on the battlefield for a long time. He knew that his troops were not as strong as the rebels, so he had to take it wisely, not forcefully. When he heard that Shi Siming had brought more than 1,000 war horses from the north of the river and put them in the sandbar to bathe and graze every day, he ordered his men to gather the mares and tether the foals in the stables, so that once the rebel war horses arrived at the sandbar, the mares would be released and mixed with the enemy war horses. After a while, the mares remembered the foals and ran back with neighs, and the enemy war horses followed them to the Tang position.

Shi Siming lost thousands of war horses at once and was so angry that he immediately ordered his men to gather several hundred warships and attack by water. A fire boat was used in front to open the way and prepare to burn down the pontoon bridge of the Tang army.

When Li Guangbi heard the news, he prepared several hundred thick and long bamboo poles and wrapped the tips with iron armor. When the rebel fireboat came, several hundred soldiers stood on the pontoon bridge and held the fireboat with bamboo poles. The fireboat could not go forward and was burned to the point of being a fool, and the stone cannon attacked the enemy's warships, and the enemy soldiers on board were beaten to death. Some of them sank into the water with their boats; some struggled to climb ashore and escaped without a life.

Several times Shi Siming sent his generals to enter the mine of Heyang, but they were all repelled by Li Guangbi's plan.

Finally, Shi Si Ming was so ruthless that he concentrated a strong force and sent the rebel general Zhou Zhi to attack the north city of Heyang, while he led an elite force to attack the south city.

In the morning, Li Guangbi led his generals to ascend to the north city together to observe the enemy army, only to see that the enemy army was approaching the north city one by one in a large black mass. The general of the Tang army did not say anything, but he panicked in his heart at first. Li Guangbi saw the mood of the group and said calmly: "Don't be afraid, although there are many rebels, the ranks are not neat, I can see that they are a bit proud. Don't worry, we can defeat them in less than noon!"

Then, Li Guangbi ordered his generals to attack in separate groups. Although the generals fought bravely, but the enemy retreated for a while and came with the following troops. The sun was already overhead, but the two sides were not yet divided.

Lee Kwang-pil called his generals to discuss again and said, "Which direction is the strongest fighting force when you observe the enemy's formation?"

The generals replied, "The northwest corner and the southeast corner."

Lee Kwang-pil nodded and immediately set aside 500 cavalrymen and sent two generals to lead them to attack the northwest and southeast corners in separate directions.

Lee Kwang-pil gathered all the generals left behind and solemnly announced the military order, saying, "Generals look at my flag to move: if I wave the flag slowly, you can move individually; if the flag waves sharply to the ground, it is the signal for a general attack. When the generals see this signal, they must fight their way forward and are not allowed to retreat from the battlefield." At this point, he took a short sword and stuck it in his boot, saying, "Fighting a war is a matter of life and death. I am a minister of the state, and I will not die in the hands of the enemy. If you die at the front, I will kill myself here."

After hearing Li Guangbi's inspiring words, the soldiers went to the battlefield with courage. In a short time, the general Hao Tingyu turned around and ran back from the front of the line, and Li Guangbi immediately sent his soldiers with his sword to meet him, and wanted to behead Hao Tingyu on the spot.

When Hao Tingyu saw that the soldier who gave the order wanted to kill him, he shouted out, "My horse was hit by an arrow, not retreating."

The soldier reported to Li Guangbi, who immediately ordered them to change Hao Tingyu's horse and re-entered the battle.

Seeing that the morale of the Tang army was strong, Li Guangbi waved his flag to the ground sharply and ordered a general attack. Seeing the flag at the top of the city, the generals from all sides scrambled to rush into the enemy line, and the shouts of killing shook the sky. The rebels could no longer resist the fierce attack and retreated. More than a thousand of them were killed and captured by the Tang army, and more than a thousand soldiers were crushed into the water and drowned.

Shi Siming was continuing his attack on the southern city. Li Guangbi drove the captured rebels from the northern city to the river. Knowing that Zhou Zhi's whole army had collapsed, Shi Siming dared not fight any more and hastily ordered a retreat and fled back to Luoyang.

Li Guangbi continuously repelled Shi Siming's attacks and the two sides held each other for nearly two years. Tang Su Zong listened to Fish Chao En and ordered Li Guangbi to attack Luoyang, but Li Guangbi thought the enemy was still very strong and should not attack the city easily. Li Guangbil was forced to attack by eunuchs one after another, and Li Guangbil took the risk to attack.

With a strong opponent gone, Shi Siming took advantage of the situation and attacked Chang'an. Fortunately, at this time the rebels had a third internal strife and Shi Siming was killed by his son Shi Chaoyi.

The rebel army was divided internally and in 763 AD, Shi Chaoyi committed suicide in defeat.

From the time An Lushan started the rebellion until Shi Chaoyi's defeat. The civil war in the Central Plains lasted for eight years and is known in history as the "An-Shi Rebellion".