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

Chapter 883: Defending the West and Attacking the East, Standing on Huangshan Mountain, Jinyun Fire Thunder Moves the Fairy Clouds

May 27
Bai Zhengxiao led 10,000 left-wing troops to approach Jingde County. Fang Qing abandoned the city and fought in the field. He was defeated and fled to Shezhou. He held on to Jixi County and mobilized all the troops in Shezhou to join him.

On May 30, Fang Qing gathered 30,000 troops in Jixi County and set up a camp on the southern foot of Huangshan Mountain to confront Bai Zhengxiao's troops on the northern foot.

On June 3, 50,000 reinforcements from Taizhou arrived, and the number of bandit troops on the southern foot of Huangshan Mountain rose to 100,000.

Fang Qing stood on the top of the city wall, looking at the camp that was out of sight. Thinking of Bai Zhengxiao in the north, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "Attack and defense are different."

On June 5, Fang Qing led a large army to launch a fierce attack on Bai Zhengxiao's camp.

The camp set up by Bai Zhengxiao was built according to the terrain of the mountain, and a side camp was set up on top of Huangshan Mountain, with 500 archers stationed there, commanding the enemy from a high vantage point.

Fang Qing fought desperately for a day and a night but achieved no results, so he had to retreat.

On June 10, the army heading south, which had been hiding in Hangzhou for nearly a month, finally stopped hiding.

They quickly defeated the 50,000-strong bandit army that was besieging Tonglu, captured Muzhou, and arrived at the city of Wuzhou.

To the east of Wuzhou is Taizhou.

"Where did the government troops come from? Aren't they in Runzhou?"

Inside Wuzhou City, the rebel general Yuan Sui couldn't help but tremble in his heart when he saw the Tang army's flags covering the sky.

"General, why don't we surrender? We only have 30,000 men. Looking at the situation, even 50,000 government troops can't stop us."

"Yes." Yuan Sui looked at his staff, somewhat reluctantly. He was a relative of Yuan Chao, and the government troops might not accept his surrender.

Liu Jian, the staff member, bowed and said to Yuan Sui: "If it weren't for the recent recommendation, I would have been killed long ago. Please go to the enemy camp and seek a way out for the general."

Yuan Sui was extremely moved and grabbed Liu Jian's shoulder and said, "Thank you for your help, sir."

On that day, Liu Jian went down to the top of the city wall alone in a basket, came to the outside of the Tang army camp, and asked to meet Gao Shi.

Inside the commander's tent, Gao Shi learned that the visitor was an aide to Yuan Sui, the garrison commander of Muzhou. He guessed that he was here to surrender, and said to his attendants:
"The bandit army is different from the rebel army. We must eliminate all the bandits. I want to kill the envoy. What do you think?"

Military officer Bai Shaohui immediately stepped out and said, "Your Excellency, this cannot be done. The root cause of the rebellion in Jiangnan is the collection of unpaid taxes. The officials have been too harsh in forcing the people to pay. The people have no other options left, so this is the only way to stop them."

"It's not that the people have no fear, but it's a matter of life and death. If you kill the messenger and all the soldiers guarding Wuzhou, the rest of the rebels will know and will definitely refuse to surrender. The resistance will be fierce and will be of no benefit to suppressing the rebellion."

"The people in Wuzhou are already few in number. If we kill too many people, it will definitely hurt the foundation. After all, the court still needs the people to farm and pay taxes."

"Why not listen to the envoy's conditions? If they are not excessive, we can agree to them for the time being. It is important to capture Wuzhou without bloodshed and reach Taizhou as soon as possible."

Gao Shi thought it was reasonable, so he asked someone to bring the messenger in.

In the end, Gao Shi promised that as long as Yuan Sui surrendered the city, he would be given the position of Du Yu Hou in recognition of his contribution.

On June 19th, the government troops entered Wuzhou, and Yuan Sui surrendered Wuzhou.

On June 23, government troops entered Taizhou.

It was at this time that Yuan Chao received news from the government troops.

The reason why it was so late was, firstly, that Gao Shi's troops were swift and captured three cities in three days, leaving the enemy troops no time to react. At least tens of thousands of enemy troops were left west of Wuzhou, and they had no time to retreat to Taizhou.

Secondly, Gao Shi had issued a blockade order two months ago, blocking all roads leading south from Hangzhou and not allowing anyone to go south. The roads leading south from Hangzhou were thus cut off.

Since no one went south, Yuan Chao could not get any information about the government troops north of Hangzhou.

As for heading north along the sea route, the imperial warships were cruising on the sea of ​​Taizhou at this time.

Since the Taizhou Uprising, the Nanyang Bureau of the Tang Dynasty Maritime Administration has almost completely blocked Taizhou's coastline, and no ship is allowed to go out to sea.

Therefore, Yuan Chao's current information is still the old news from three months ago: "The recruiting envoys sent by the court were excluded by the Jiangnan heroes, without soldiers and food, and in great distress." At that time, he said to his subordinates: "This is how the government troops are. They are still arrogant even when they are about to die. But it just happened to be a good thing for us."

After that, he relaxed his exploration of the north and began to invade the south, preparing to completely occupy all the prefectures and counties south of Taizhou.

However, because the elite troops of Fuzhou Defense Commander Qian Shizhong and Jianzhou Governor Li Chong joined together and set up camp in Tangxing County to defend themselves, they failed in several attacks and thus the peasant army stayed in the city for half a month without advancing.

Jinyun Mountain

After passing Jinyun Mountain, you will reach Le'an River, and along Le'an River you can go directly to Linhai, the capital of Taizhou.

In view of the important position of Jinyun Mountain, Yuan Chao once again stationed 50,000 troops there.

Since receiving the news that the Tang army was heading south, Yuan Chao urgently ordered General Xue Zujun, who was attacking Jianzhou, to return to defend the city.

June 25
Gao Shi launched an attack on Jinyun Mountain.

Unlike the bandit army which lacked means of siege, the government army, with the support of the gentry and wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, was rich and powerful, with ramparts, ladders, siege vehicles, manhole covers, and even new weapons such as "fire mines".

"boom!!!"

A cloud of black smoke rose from the bandit camp at the foot of Jinyun Mountain.

"The government troops have called on the gods!"

Hearing the continuous sound of pottery jars thrown into the camp by catapults, followed by thunder-like sounds, the soldiers in the bandit camp could not help but think of gods and ghosts.

With the help of fire bombs, the morale of the rebel army reached its lowest point.

Gao Shi seized the opportunity and sent his elite troops forward. In less than half an hour, the Jinyun Mountain passage was broken and the bandit army fled in all directions.

Standing on the top of Jinyun Mountain, looking at the fairyland like clouds and mist and the groups of soldiers passing by below the mountain, Gao Shi sighed: "How can such a mountain and river be so full of disasters?"

On June 29th, Gao Shi arrived at Linhai and defeated Yuan Chao's army of more than 100,000 troops on the outskirts of the city. The remaining troops of Yuan Chao fled to Tangxing Shilei Village north of Linhai.

On July 1, the government troops broke through the Shilei Fort and Yuan Chao was captured. After meeting with him, Gao Shi selected soldiers to escort him to the capital.

On July 15, Gao Shi attacked the remnant of the rebel army led by Xue Zujun who was heading north in Longquan County. He killed the rebel leader Xue Zujun in battle, and the rebel troops either fled or surrendered.

On July 21, Bai Zhengxiao attacked Fang Qing's camp at night. The rebel army was already uneasy because of Yuan Chao's death, and there was a camp cry. Fang Qing retreated into She County.

On July 22, Wenzhou, Mingzhou, Yuezhou and Quzhou were liberated.

On July 24, Zhao Jingliang, a general under Fang Qing, killed Fang Qing and took Shezhou and surrendered.

At this point, all the large peasant armies in Jiangnan had been suppressed, and the remaining roaming remnants could be dealt with by the local militia and guarding troops alone.

Gao Shi then reported his achievements and requested to return to Yangzhou, where his troops were stationed.

On August 3, Gao Shi held a banquet in Runzhou to thank the heroes of Jiangnan for their support.

Li Yu in Chang'an City was very excited to learn that Jiangnan was pacified and the rebels were defeated. He issued an edict of amnesty and changed the era name to "Guangde".

In recognition of Gao Shi's achievements, Li Yu decided to transfer him to Jiannan, because Jiannan had just experienced the Xu Zhidao Rebellion the previous year.

Last year, Xu Zhidao, the military commander of Jiannan, took advantage of the opportunity when the court recalled his immediate superior, Yan Wu, the governor of Jiannan, to the capital, and rebelled. He imprisoned Yan Wu and swept across most of Shu.

During the reign of Emperor Suzong, Jiannan was divided into two parts, East and West Sichuan. At this time, Cui Guangyuan, the governor of West Sichuan, was barely holding on, and East Sichuan had already fallen.

If the court had not ordered the nearby Qiannan Jiedushi Bai Tailong to send troops north to help, Shu would have been occupied by the rebels long ago, which would have been a major threat to the court.

Due to the instability in Shu and the threat from neighboring Tubo, in order to protect his own rear base, Li Yu decided to change Zhen Gao Shi to the governor of Jiannan West Sichuan, acting governor of East Sichuan, and pacify Jiannan.

(End of this chapter)