A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 560 Zhao Guo replaced Yao family for Zhao and killed Hu to order the five countries in the world.
Just as the Xia Kingdom was conquering the north and the Fu clan was claiming the throne in Guanzhong, the situation in Guandong (Henan) was also turbulent.

Since Shi Jian secretly interfered, taking advantage of the conflict between Shi Zun and Yao Yizhong, he successfully instigated Yao Yizhong to kill Shi Zun.

Because Yao Yizhong was not a member of the Shi family, he could not ascend the throne, so he had to support Shi Jian as the new king.

After Shi Jian ascended the throne, he reciprocated the favor and made Yao Yizhong the general, the king of Wude, and Li Nong the chief minister.

The two of them were in charge of the ministerial affairs at the same time.

However, as time passed, Shi Jian became dissatisfied with the current status quo and sought greater rights.

The biggest obstacle is of course the behemoth Yao Yizhong.

In December of the fourth year of Yanping, Shi Jian invited Yao Yizhong, Li Nong and others to a banquet in the Kunhua Hall of the imperial palace.

He secretly instigated King Shibao of Leping, Zhongshu Ling Li Song, General Zhang Cai and others to lead troops into Kunhua Hall after making excuses to leave the banquet hall, intending to kill Ran Min and Li Nong.

Unexpectedly, Yao Yizhong's son Yao Xiang noticed it and led troops from outside the palace into the hall and rescued Yao and Li.

This move caused chaos in the palace. Yao and Li's soldiers massacred people in the palace. Hundreds of waiters, eunuchs, and maids died as a result.

In the early morning of the next day, Shi Jian was afraid that Yao Yizhong would use this as an excuse to start a rebellion or even kill him, so he lied and claimed that he did not know about it.

He also killed Li Song and Zhang Cai at the West Zhonghua Gate that night, and even captured Shi Bao to express his sincerity.

Yao Yizhong knew that Li and Zhang were instigated by Shi Jian, but he still pretended to accept it.

Just because he was afraid of Shi Jian's brother, the rising king Shi Zhi who was guarding the two states of Qing and Yan, and Shi Zhuan was gathering heroes from all over to make Yao Yizhong a powerful official and march towards Kaifeng.

In order to deal with Shi Zhi, Yao Yizhong appointed Shi Kun, the king of Ruyin who was good to him, as the general governor. He, together with former general Zhang Ju and minister Hu Yansheng, led 70,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Shi Zhi in separate ways.

Just when Yao Yizhong wanted to finish dealing with Shi Zhuan and then deal with Shi Jian's matter, something happened to Shi Jian again.

At that time, Longxiang generals Sun Fudu, Liu Zhu and others gathered 3,000 Jie soldiers to ambush in the area where the Hu people lived, and also wanted to kill Yao Yizhong and others.

It happened that Yao Yizhong, Shi Jian and others were discussing matters in Zhongtai.

Sun Fudu, who was on duty, took the opportunity to lead more than 30 people, wanting to take the stage first and seize Shi Jian, and launch an attack on Yao Yizhong in the name of Shi Jian.

Shi Jian saw that Sun Fu was destroying the pavilion and asked why. He learned that he wanted to kill Yao.

He was secretly happy in his heart, but his face showed no emotion as he said:
"You are a hero, serve the country well. I will watch you from the stage, there is no need to consider things that have not been reported to me."

Sun Fu didn't expect to get the emperor's support. He was overjoyed and immediately led the soldiers with Liu Zhu and others to attack Yao Yizhong and Li Nong.

However, they failed to win in the end and had to transfer their troops to Fengyang Gate.

After coming back to their senses, Yao Yizhong and Li Nong immediately commanded thousands of soldiers to destroy the Jinming Gate and gain access to the palace.

Shi Jian was afraid that Yao Yizhong would kill him, so he quickly summoned the two of them, opened the palace gate himself to admit them, and acted like he was being held hostage:
"Sun Fudu and Liu Zhu have rebelled. You have come just in time. I order you to attack Sun and Liu immediately."

So Yao and Li, who had received the Emperor's flag, quickly attacked and killed Sun Fudu and others.

However, the turmoil did not stop, and many barbarians took the opportunity to cause chaos in Kaifeng Mansion. Yao Yizhong had someone issue an order to inform both inside and outside the palace:
"Anyone from the six barbarians who dares to use weapons will be killed."

After learning that Sun and Liu's rebellion had been put down and their support was gone, some of the Hu soldiers broke through the city gates and some escaped over the walls. As a result, countless people fled.

In March of the fifth year of Yanping, Shi Jian was essentially imprisoned in Yulongguan by Yao Yizhong, and was only given a small amount of food every day to ensure that he would not starve to death.

On March 5, Yao Yizhong wanted to completely eliminate Shi's destiny, so he issued the "Order to Change the Clan" in the name of Shi Jian.

Taking the word "following Zhao Li" in the prophecy as his name, he changed his country name to Wei, changed the Shi family in the world to Li family, and changed his reign name to Qinglong.

He also said that he had Li blood in his blood and was a descendant of Laozi Li Er. He changed his name to Li and was called Li Yizhong.

However, this move was opposed by the Shi clan and a group of loyal ministers of the Shi clan. A total of more than 10,000 people including princes, ministers, principals, and Long Teng in Kaifeng City rushed out to Puyang Shizhuan one after another.

When Shi Kun, Zhang Ju, Wang Lang and others who were out attacking Shi Zhuan heard about the changes in the court, they immediately defected, abandoned Shi Zhuan, and attacked Kaifeng in the opposite direction, with the intention of serving the king.

Unexpectedly, Yao Yizhong's Qiang knights were fierce and equipped with elite armor from Kaifeng's arsenal. With three thousand elite knights, they defeated Shi Kun and others' tens of thousands of troops.

After the war, Yao Yizhong and Li Nong led 30,000 cavalry to leave Kaifeng and go to Shidu to attack the rebel Zhang Hedu.

In May, when he learned that Yao Yizhong had left the capital, Shi Jian secretly sent a eunuch to deliver a message, summoning Zhang Shen and others stationed in Fengqiu, and asked them to take advantage of the opportunity to attack Yecheng.

However, the eunuch turned around and wrote to Yao Yizhong about the matter.

Yao Yizhong left Li Nong to lead the army and continued to attack Zhang Hedu. He quickly returned with thousands of his troops.

On May 21, Yao Yizhong deposed Shi Jian and killed him. He also killed thirty-eight of Shi Hu's grandsons, wiping out all the Shi family in Beijing.

On June 5, forty-eight people including Situ Shenzhong and Sikong Langtian requested to honor Yao Yizhong as emperor.

Yao Yizhong pretended to give it to Li Nong, saying that he was the real one with the surname Li and that he was the destined person.

However, Li Nong naturally knew Yao Yizhong's intentions and insisted on dying to ask Yao Yizhong to become emperor.

So after three resignations and three concessions, Yao Yizhong ascended the throne in the southern suburbs of Kaifeng and granted amnesty to all prisoners in the world.

Because Kaifeng was called Daliang in ancient times. It was first the capital of the Wei State, and then became the capital of the Bai State. It cannot be called Bai. Not to mention that Zhengshuo, the Bai family of Xia State, was here, and he fell into the inferior position.

If it is really used, Xia Kingdom will definitely use all its national strength to attack.

Naturally, Yao Yizhong would not do such a thing for the sake of fame at the expense of real interests.

The country was named "Da Wei", the reign name was changed to "Yongxing", and the surname Yao was restored, so it can be called "Yao Wei".

On the second day, Yao Yizhong ordered the emperor to honor the three generations of ancestors as the late emperor, and established his mother Wang as the empress dowager, his son Li as the empress, and his eldest son Yao Xiang as the crown prince.

Li Nong was appointed as the Grand Prime Minister, Taiwei, and Shangshu, and was granted the title of King of Qi. Li Nong's disciples were all granted the title of County Duke.

Yao Yizhong had a total of forty-two sons. Except for the eldest son Yao Yisheng and the second son Yao Ruo who died in the early wars, the others were all named kings.

Secondly, civil servants and military generals were promoted to third-class official positions, and each level of nobility was granted.

Then he sent people to pardon those who gathered in various places to cause trouble, but they all refused.

On the other side, Shi Zhuan was secretly happy when he heard that Shi Jian had been killed by Yao Yizhong, and he usurped the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in Puyang that day.

Due to the Shi family's prestige among the foreign tribes, the barbarians occupied the prefectures and counties, and the Hu leaders with military strength responded one after another.

Since then, the State of Zhao, which originally stretched across the rivers, lived in the Central Plains, and embraced Guanzhong, was roughly divided into three parts.

One part is the Qin State of the Fu family in Guanzhong and its west; the other part is the Zhao State of the Shi family that occupies the two states of Qingyan; and the other part is the Wei State of the Yao family that occupies the two states of Siyu.

At the same time, in the fifth year of Yanping, there were five countries in the world, namely Xia, Qin, Jin, Wei, and Zhao.

Among them, the Xia Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom occupy one-third of the world, Xia controls Hebei, Jin controls the south of the Yangtze River, Qin, Wei, and Zhao occupy one-third, occupying the areas between the rivers.

Seeing that most of the Hu people in the Central Plains respected Shi Zhuan as their master, he could not compete with him at all.

Yao Yizhong thought of finding another way.

Yanping six years
New Year
Wei Emperor Yao Yizhong followed Xia's example and issued the "Killing Hu Order".

"Killing the Hu Ling" said that he was originally of mixed Han and Qiang descent. He had learned Sinology since he was a child and was already a Han. However, the Shi family came from the Jie clan and fed on Han people, which was intolerable.

In order to distinguish Xia Guo's "Cutting Hu Order", Yao Yizhong specifically announced the reward order in the edict:
"Anyone who cuts off the head of a barbarian and sends it to Fengyang Gate will be promoted to the third rank for civil officials, the third rank for military officers, and the third rank for ordinary people."

As soon as the "Kill the Hu Order" came out, the Han people in Siyu and Yuzhou, who had been oppressed by the Hu people in the past, burst out with great enthusiasm.

In the vicinity of Kaifeng alone, with a radius of hundreds of miles, tens of thousands of Hu people were killed in one day, and countless people brought their own dry food and troops to join the army.

Compared with Xia Guo's slightly gentle "Ling to Kill Hu", Yao Yizhong's "Ling to Kill Hu" is more gratifying and bloody, which is in line with the Han people's theory of great revenge.

In March, just two months later, more than 200,000 Hu people died due to various reasons in the two prefectures of Siyu under the rule of Yao Yizhong.

And Yao Yizhong also completely consolidated his rule over the two states.

In addition, in order to prevent himself from backstabbing Jin when dealing with Qin and Zhao, and fighting on two fronts, Yao Yizhong, on the advice of Shangshu Wang Kuang, sent envoys to Xia and Jin:
"The rebellious Hu people disturbed the Central Plains, and now they have been eliminated. If we can jointly conquer, we can send troops here.

Our two countries will rejuvenate China together. "

The two countries’ reactions to this:
The Jin State sent Yuan Zhen, the prefect of Lujiang, to attack Hefei of Yao Wei under the orders of the imperial court. He arrested Wei Nanman Colonel Santan and moved the people away before returning.

The Xia State made it clear that Yao, Shi and Fu Tong were all Hu tribes who had occupied the Central Plains. He Yan, the envoy of the Xia State, refused to establish diplomatic relations with the Wei State and formed an alliance to attack the Zhao State together.

Although he was rejected by Jin and Xia, Yao Yizhong didn't care.

He believed that he could still conquer the Central Plains with just his own force.

But the top priority is to take all the power of the Wei State into his own hands.

June
Yao Yizhong accused Li Nong of being a barbarian and imprisoned Li Nong and his tribe.

Because of the "Kill the Hu Order", the Hu generals in the army who had supported Li Nong in the past were replaced by Han soldiers and generals.

And they all support Yao Yizhong.

June 7
Yao Yizhong executed Li Nong and his clansmen in the West Market of Kaifeng. Also killed along with them were Shangshu Ling Wang Mo, Minister Wang Yan, Minister Yan Zhen, Zhao Sheng and others.

July
Shi Zhi sent Prime Minister Shi Kun to lead an army of 100,000 soldiers to attack Kaifeng and march to defend Wei City.

After receiving the news, Yao Yizhong appointed Shangshu Zuopushe Liu Qun as the governor of Xingtai, and led 120,000 cavalry to camp in Pucheng.

Yao Yizhong personally commanded 80,000 elite troops as their successors.

July 21

The two sides started a big melee near Wating. Shi Kun was defeated and even lost Wei City, which was only dozens of miles away from Puyang.

Tens of thousands of Zhao troops died in this battle.

(End of this chapter)