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

Chapter 873: The surrender of Huabian is about to be completed, and Shandong is in charge of the situation
The first year of Shangyuan (the fourth year of Qianyuan)
The situation in the world changed again, just as Bai Jing was preparing to go east through Tongguan and collect the corpses of Henan people with Luoyang as the center.

It turned out that the Tang army's defense on the south bank was lost, Liyang was captured by the rebels, and Shi Siming's army went straight to Huazhou. The various troops went south from various ferry crossings of the Yellow River and joined forces at the city of Bianzhou.

Xu Shuji, the governor of Bianhua in the Tang Dynasty, was unable to resist and surrendered together with Dong Qin, the governor of Puzhou. The entire eastern Henan province fell into the hands of the rebels.

The Tang court's tax collection route was once again cut off by the rebels. Li Heng ordered Yu Chaoen and Li Guangbi to recapture Bianzhou and open up the financial system in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, Li Guangbi carefully read the above-mentioned enemy and our situation, which made Li Heng give up the radical plan of sending troops, and agreed to Li Guangbi to move the officials and civilians around Luoyang to Tongguan, retreat to the three cities of Heyang, and clear the fields.

After Shi Siming captured Bianzhou, he personally led the main force to attack Zhengzhou in the west, while ordering his general Nan Dexin to lead the surrendered soldiers from Bianzhou to attack Jianghuai in the south. He also ordered the recently surrendered Dong Qin to lead his troops to attack Shandong.

As a result, except for the Western Army where he was, which successfully captured Zhengzhou, it also easily captured the empty city of Luoyang.

Nan Dexin's troops heading south were blocked by Liu Zhan, deputy envoy of the Huaixi Jiedushi, and gained nothing.

Dong Qin, who was heading east, surrendered directly to the Tang Dynasty again. He was persuaded to surrender by Tian Shengong, the governor of Pinglu, and reoccupied Puzhou again, directly threatening the rebels' retreat.

Shi Siming had no choice but to ask Nan Dexin to lead his troops to give up the march south and settle in Bianzhou to guard the army's flank.

He led most of his troops to fight fiercely with Li Guangbi's troops in Heyang.

Bai Jing felt very complicated when he learned that the war in the east had broken out again and the people of Henan were suffering disaster again.

The rebels also acted recklessly, causing countless killings, destroying villages and cities on their way south.

After making up his mind, Bai Jing returned to Chang'an again and asked to see Li Heng. He proposed to go to Shandong, unite the various ethnic groups in Shandong, and join forces with the court to attack the rebels in Henan.

As for why the Hedong Army has not taken any action in the past two years, one reason is that the Hedong war had just ended not long ago, the rebels were powerful, the defensive pressure in Hedong was too great, and there were insufficient troops to pose an effective threat.

They even lost all the cities east of Taihang Mountain. Chengde Jiedushi Yan Zhenqing had to abandon Zhaozhou and Hengzhou and lead more than 5,000 remaining troops to join the Hedong Army to resist the rebel invasion.

Naturally, Li Heng had no objection to Bai Jing's request.

Especially at the moment when the imperial army is at a disadvantage and has lost Luoyang.

So he immediately issued an imperial decree to appoint Bai Jing as the ambassador of Henan and the envoy of Pinglu, Yanhai and Duzhi transportation and interview, almost giving Bai Jing full authority over Shandong.

On the day of his appointment, Bai Jing took Du Fu, Bai Jinchuan, Bai Wenjin, Bai Ming, Yuan Baoyi and others on a detour to Shandong.

First, he arrived at Xiangzhou from Wugu Pass, then took the waterway all the way along the Yangtze River to Yangzhou, then changed ships and went north along the canal, switched to land route in Xuzhou, passed Yanzhou and Zibo and arrived at Qingzhou.

Finally, they arrived at the core city of Shandong - Qingzhou City, also known as Yidu, which was also the garrison of the Pinglu Army and the location of the Bai family's Shandong Council.

Originally, the Bai Clan Council's headquarters was set in Dengzhou, but considering that the Henan Council had not been successfully launched and that some of the clansmen in Henan needed to be taken into consideration, the headquarters was moved to Qingzhou City, which would also be able to better influence the Pinglu Army.

Qingzhou City, the seat of the Bai Clan Council, is a four-story Tang-style building located in the east of the city.

The building was named "Qingbo Pavilion". The first and second floors were the offices of various large businesses owned by the Bai family, including Sihai Trading Company, Ocean Chamber of Commerce, Beiyang Shipping Bureau, Shandong Medical Bureau, and Weiyuan Escort Agency.

The third floor is the office of the Bai Clan's East Clan, and those who come in and out are the clan leaders or elders of the Bai Clan's various halls. The fourth floor was originally the territory of the East Clan, but after the parliamentary procedure was initiated, it was handed over to the parliament and the regent.

To the east are the offices of the parliament members, to the west are the offices of the regent and his staff, and in the center are several halls used for meetings of the tribesmen.

In an ordinary conference room, there is a long table with two seats on the left and right.

Bai Shaopeng, the heir sent by the family, sat at the head of the seat because he represented the main family.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Bai Zhengxing, whose status was second only to the Empress Dowager, sat in the first seat on the left, with the other members and clerks sitting in order.

Sitting first on the right is Bai Mingen, leader of the Dong Sect, and next to him is Bai Shaopeng's chief of staff, Wang Yong, who is Bai's son-in-law and can be considered a member of the Bai family. Because of his outstanding abilities, he is valued by Bai Shaopeng.

The other important members of the Ryūgo Shogunate lined up on Wang Yong's side.

Therefore, the power structure of the Bai family in Shandong area formed a situation in which the shogunate system represented by the governor, the clan hall system represented by the suzerain, and the parliamentary system represented by the speaker were equally important and mutually restrained.

The shogunate is responsible for supervision, the speaker of the parliament is responsible for review, and the suzerain and the chief of the clan hall are responsible for execution.

These attendees were either descendants of the Bai family, or close relatives who were loyal to the Bai family through marriage, or members of the Quan, Yuan, and Su families who had already integrated into the Bai family.

There are even some female members of the tribe.

But today, all the members of the shogunate, parliament, and clan hall who used to be able to intimidate a township or even a county by stomping their feet in various places in Shandong have disappeared.

Only the regent Bai Shaopeng, the speaker Bai Zhengxing, the leader of the Dongzong Bai Mingen, the chief of staff Wang Yong, and the local chamber of commerce representative Quan Guangxu stood respectfully in the hall, looking at an old man sitting in the first seat.

That’s right, after nearly three months of travel, Bai Jing finally arrived in Qingzhou, Shandong. This was the first time he summoned the core members of his family in Shandong.

In addition to the above-mentioned local officials such as Bai Shaopeng, the other people who could participate in this meeting were the "officials from Beijing" brought by Bai Jing:
Bai Jing's son Bai Ming, secretary Bai Wenjin, deputy director of the Military Academy Yuan Baoyi, head of the Sihai Trading Company headquarters Qiu Shengquan, and commander of the Shaozhuyuan's personal guards Bai Jinchuan.

"Everyone, please take a seat. There's no need to be nervous since this is our first meeting."

Bai Jing looked at the heroes of these families with a smile on his face, feeling very happy.

Upon hearing this, Bai Shaopeng took the lead and sat on the right, his expression respectful but not fanatical. After all, he used to be the head of the family and they met often.

But Bai Zhengxing, Bai Mingen, Wang Yong, Quan Guangxu and others are different. Although they are all outstanding people in Shandong, they have a say in Shandong's power institutions, such as the Pinglu Military Mansion and the Governor's Mansion.

But since they were all meeting Bai Jing for the first time, they couldn't help but feel nervous and excited. Among them, Bai Zhengxing and other members of the Bai family were even a little fanatical.

Because if the master had not planned and designed the parliamentary system in advance, Shandong would definitely have been plunged into war and there would have been no peace.

Following Bai Jing's order and Bai Shaopeng's leadership, the central main family's parachuted people, headed by Bai Ming, sat on the left, and the local side family, headed by Bai Shaopeng, sat on the right.

When everyone was seated, Bai Jing got straight to the point and said:
"I came to Shandong for only three things: to march west to quell the rebellion, to check the accounts, and to form a united front."

(End of this chapter)