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

Chapter 918: The Scholar of Classics in the Northern Court and the Southern Court, Escapes from the Shell and Creates a Gap

December of the second year of Qianfu

Changan
Since Xuanzong, the Tang emperors have been residing in the Daming Palace to govern the country. The Taiji Palace in Chang'an City has been abandoned and served only as a separate palace and the office of officials from the three provinces and six ministries.

The Daming Palace was chosen because it was located outside the city of Chang'an, which would be beneficial to the situation and prevent migration.

Secondly, the Shence Army was located outside the Daming Palace, which made it convenient for the eunuchs to control the imperial power nearby, thus forming the Beisi.

Therefore, today's Chang'an, the political center of the Tang Dynasty, has formed the Northern Office system headed by eunuchs, and the Southern Office system headed by prime ministers and court officials.

The Northern Department is in charge of the military, and the Southern Department is in charge of finances.

But overall, due to the influence of the Shen Ce Army, the Northern Department suppressed the Southern Department to the point where it was suffocating.

At this time, Li Xuan, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, rarely came to the Taiji Palace and summoned the court officials of the Southern Court to make reports.

"Look, everyone, look, this is the bandit you were talking about? Great, they have kept it a secret from me. If it weren't for my father finding out, would he have waited until the bandits reached Chang'an before telling me the truth?"

"Is this Tang Dynasty yours or mine?"

In the Secretariat, Li Xuan was furious and the ministers below the throne did not dare to speak. Even Lu Xie, the head prime minister, tried to reduce his presence as much as possible.

"say something."

Looking at the ministers who were acting like quails, Li Xuan felt a little sad. Are these the ministers of his Tang Dynasty?
"Okay, you won't say anything, right? Then I will let those science students come to the court. I want to see how those people you call heretics compare to you."

"At least they won't hide it from me like this."

After these words were spoken, the court officials could no longer sit still. They could not let those science students come in again.

Those people were a bunch of stubborn people, who had become stupid from reading too much. People like Liu Yunzhang didn't care about the rules of officialdom at all and directly exposed their embarrassing deeds.

The Cao thieves have grown powerful, but at most they can only operate locally. It is the students who think they are their biggest enemies.

If they came to power, wouldn't there be another Yongzhen Reform, and they would be exiled again?

How can they make money without their official positions? This would be more painful than killing them.

So the Prime Minister Lu Xie, who could not bear the pressure from the ministers, had to bite the bullet and step forward to say:
"Your Majesty, why are you so angry? As Your Majesty said, they are just a group of bandits. They are now so powerful only because the local vassal states did not make any efforts."

"If the court really cares, it's just a matter of Pang Xun, so why would it let Your Majesty get hurt?"

"But those students of science are different. They have no king or father, and they regard the governors of local vassal states as their kings, which has led to the vassal states taking root in the local areas. This is a major problem for the court."

"Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, I have only heard of vassal states entering the capital, causing the emperor to move away, but I have never heard of bandits breaking into the capital and embarrassing Your Majesty."

"Which of these is the most serious problem? I believe that your majesty, with your wisdom, has already figured it out."

After listening to Lu Xie's remarks, Li Xuan felt that he was making a big deal out of nothing. These vassal states were the top priority at the moment.

Now that Li Keyong of Daibei has become so powerful, he has even occupied Weizhou. This is really disrespectful.

Before that, he took advantage of the fact that Li Guochang and Li Keyong, father and son, were attacking the Dangxiang and appointed the Tuyuhun leader Helian Duo as the military envoy of Datong, occupying their nest and wanting to kill them on the way.

Unexpectedly, Li Keyong counterattacked and captured Weizhou, occupying it as his base.

He knew that this was because the Bai family, a wealthy family in Hebei, was helping them behind the scenes, otherwise why would the Shatuo tribe have been so difficult to defeat?

However, he and the Bai family cannot fall out yet.

Not to mention their influence in Hedong, even the Hedong Jiedushi sent by the imperial court could not control them.

Besides, the Xuanwu Army controlled by the Bai family and the Qiannan Army are both first-class powerful armies.

The Bai family also has a considerable influence in various places.

If we really fall out with them, it will be bad for both sides.

Therefore, both of them are maintained at a level of fighting but not breaking.

So, under the persuasion of Lu Xie and other court officials from Confucian aristocratic families, Li Xuan, who had originally planned to focus on clearing out the Jianghuai bandit Wang Xianzhi, changed his attitude.

He continued to focus on governing Daibei, but only appointed Song Wei, the governor of Pinglu, as the envoy to recruit and suppress bandits in various camps.

He also granted 3,000 imperial guards and 500 armored cavalry, and ordered them to command the troops sent by the various vassal states in Henan to suppress the bandits such as Jianghuai Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang, and Huang Chao.

July of the third year of Qianfu
Led by Song Wei, the envoy for suppressing bandits, 30,000 Tang troops launched an attack on Wang Xianzhi's main force entrenched in Yizhou. Facing a strong enemy, Wang Xianzhi followed Shang Junchang's advice and decisively abandoned Yizhou, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, and traveled a long distance to the west to Xuzhou.

August
Wang Xianzhi's nearly 200,000 troops passed through Xuzhou and Suzhou without stopping, bypassing important cities and towns, and only took rural forts and county towns as military supplies. They quickly arrived in Yingzhou and entered Henan.

August

In ten days, Wang Xianzhi captured eight counties in succession, occupied Yangdi, and controlled Jiacheng. He invaded the vicinity of the Eastern Capital and headed straight for Luoyang.

Li Xuan was shocked and quickly replaced Song Wei with Prime Minister Wang Duo as the envoy to suppress the bandits in various camps, and appointed Zuo Sanqi Changshi Zeng Yuanyu as the deputy envoy to garrison Luoyang.

He also ordered Li Fu, the governor of Shannan East Road, to select 2,000 infantry and cavalry to march north to Ruzhou and Dengzhou to guard the important roads.

Fengxiang Jiedushi Linghu Xuan and Fanging Jiedushi Li Kan stationed in Shanzhou and Tongguan, forming a defense line with Luoyang as the center.

The intention was to stop Wang Xianzhi from advancing westward and then annihilate the rebel army.

Because they had not encountered any strong army before and had shaken off Song Wei's troops, the rebel army practiced in local forts and county towns along the way. Finally, they put together a fighting team.

Facing the government army's defense line, Wang Xianzhi, Shang Junchang, Huang Chao and others all thought that they should give their rebel army a little shock.

You can't always run away. Sooner or later, there will be a day when you and others will have nowhere to escape.

So they decided to attack Ruzhou by force, so that the government troops would be cautious.

September
Unafraid of the powerful enemy, the rebel army attacked Ruzhou city fiercely, annihilated the government troops, occupied Ruzhou, killed Tang general Dong Hanxun, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice Liu Chengyong, and captured Ruzhou governor Wang Liao alive.

The fall of Ruzhou shocked the imperial court, especially Luoyang, where countless officials and civilians fled the city.

Li Xuan even cancelled the Double Ninth Festival banquet because of this.

This time, Wang Xianzhi and other rebel forces finally attracted the attention of Emperor Li Xuan and his ministers.

In order to undermine the morale of the rebels, Li Xuan immediately issued an edict to pardon Wang Xianzhi's crime, "removed him from office in order to persuade him to surrender," and prepared to issue an edict of peace.

But the rebel army was at its peak at that time, and Wang Xianzhi was too proud to agree. He declined the imperial envoy, and took advantage of the victory to march north to capture Zhengzhou Yangwu, preparing to completely block Guandong's support for Dongdu.

However, when attacking Zhengzhou, reinforcements sent by the Zhaoyi Army in Hebei arrived, and the rebel army was defeated by Zhaoyi Military Supervisory Judge Lei Yinfu, and the remaining troops retreated to Ruzhou.

Seeing that the imperial court had already mobilized the troops from the northern vassal states to arrive, Wang Xianzhi also realized that the best opportunity to attack Luoyang again had been lost.

So, at the suggestion of Shang Junchang, Wang Xianzhi decided to split his troops into two groups.

Along the way, Wang Xianzhi and other troops marched southward, captured the Jingxiang area, and disrupted the Tang court's deployment.

They returned all the way to Jianghuai, which distracted the imperial court and prevented it from fully focusing on the campaign.

October
The rebel army took advantage of the fact that the government troops were heavily concentrated in Luoyang and suddenly turned around to attack Tangzhou and Dengzhou.

In November, the rebel army captured two states and continued to advance southward, capturing Yingzhou and Fuzhou in one fell swoop.

In December, he attacked Suizhou and then turned southeast to advance towards Anzhou and Huangzhou.

Another uprising army that returned to Jianghuai also gained great results. In March, it captured Shenzhou, Guangzhou, Shuzhou and Luzhou.

For a time, the rebel army's voice shook Huainan.

In less than half a year, the rebel army fought in a vast area between the Yangtze River, Huai River, Yellow River and Han River, forcing the government army to be distracted and exhausted, and the rebel army quickly grew to 300,000 people.

December 16
Because there had been no opportunity to capture Luoyang for a long time, Wang Xianzhi became anxious and began to think about issuing an amnesty.

It so happened that Pei Jue, the governor of Qizhou, was frightened by the might of the rebel army and dared not resist, so he opened the city gates to welcome the surrender.

Wang Xianzhi took the opportunity to treat him with courtesy and asked him to submit a petition to ask for an official position for him.

Li Xuan thought this was a good opportunity to split the rebels, so he issued an imperial decree to appoint Wang Xianzhi as the "Left God's Strategy Army Guard and Supervisory Censor."

After receiving the reply, Wang Xianzhi prepared to surrender, but was scolded by Huang Chao. Other rebel generals also opposed it, but Shang Junchang persuaded him.

Only then did Wang Xianzhi reluctantly refuse to surrender to the Tang Dynasty, but he also felt strongly dissatisfied with Huang Chao.

At this point, the two men began to fight separately, and the rebel forces were greatly weakened.

(End of this chapter)