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

Chapter 958: The situation in the world is changing, and the two sides will be pacified, Yunyan will be conquered, Zibo and Qing will be conquered
The first month of the third year of Qianning
The situation in the world has reached a critical moment.

Guanzhong
Wang Jian of Xichuan responded to Li Ye's edict and sent Wang Zongyao, the governor of Jianzhou, to lead troops to rescue him, but was stopped by Li Maozhen.

Afterwards, Li Maozhen, Wang Xingyu and Han Jian each led several thousand elite soldiers into the palace to pay homage to Li Ye.

Upon hearing the news, the soldiers and civilians in the capital fell into panic and fled in a hurry, and the officials were unable to stop them.

Li Ye personally went to Anfu Gate to wait for them.

The three of them arrived at the foot of the city wall and performed a dancing ceremony to greet each other.

Li Ye reprimanded them for bringing their troops into the court without seeking permission in advance, saying that as generals of the vassal states, they should maintain the etiquette of being subjects.

Li Maozhen and Wang Xingyu felt guilty and didn't know how to answer. Only Han Jian stated the reason for his visit to the court.

Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Li Ye also knew that he could not force them too much, so he summoned them all to the top of the city wall, gave them each a glass of wine, and then feasted them in the Tongwen Hall.

Li Maozhen and two other people tried their best to point out the mutual infighting among court officials and eunuchs, which was deeply harmful to the current political situation, and requested that those court officials and eunuchs who were causing particularly serious harm be executed.

Li Ye had no choice but to demote Prime Minister Wei Zhaodu and Li Jing, and soon killed them in the post station.

The three men then killed several eunuchs before leaving the capital.

Wang Xingyu left behind his younger brother Wang Xingyue, and Li Maozhen left behind his adopted son Li Yangui, each leading two thousand soldiers to serve as palace guards.

Their original plan was to depose Li Ye and enthrone Prince Ji as emperor.

It was only heard that Li Keyong raised an army in Taiyuan, attacked and killed Wang Yao of Jiangzhou, and angrily denounced them for the crime of entering the palace.

Although Zhu Quanzhong's tens of thousands of troops had already entered Shanzhou at this time, they were still afraid that if Zhu Quanzhong was defeated and the Hedong army entered the pass, the situation would become unmanageable.

After all, Hedong is one of the three most powerful vassal states in the world, so they gave up.

Shu

Shortly after Wang Zongyao, the governor of Jianzhou, was sent to rescue the emperor, Wang Jian ordered Wang Zongdi to attack Dongchuan on the grounds that Gu Yanhui did not send troops.

Gu Yanhui was unable to stop the enemy, suffered defeat after defeat, and was surrounded in Zizhou.

River Central
After Li Keyong attacked and killed Wang Yao, he joined forces with Wang Ke of Puzhou, and a total of more than 100,000 troops marched out of Zhongtiao Mountain from Jie County to attack Hebei County of Shanzhou.

At this time, Zhu Quanzhong's army was still in Xin'an. Wang Gong was unable to stop them and retreated to the south of the Yellow River. Hebei County was lost.

Ten months later, Zhu Quanzhong's army of tens of thousands arrived in Shan County, and joined forces with Wang Gong's 130,000 troops to confront Li Keyong and Wang Ke's 160,000 troops across the Yellow River.

The two sides confronted each other for three months, and finally launched a decisive battle near Dayang Bridge to compete for the ownership of the bridge.

The small Dayang Bridge was where thousands of people gathered every day to fight on the bridge, with bows and arrows flying overhead and the surging Yellow River on both sides. People could only advance and not retreat, making it like a meat grinder.

Ten months later, Liu Rengong of Youzhou was instigated by Zhu Quanzhong to rebel against Hedong and attack Weizhou, making Taiyuan unstable.

When the news reached the front line, the morale of the army began to waver. In addition, Zhu Quanzhong sent Zhu Yougong to lead troops to cross Fengling Ferry from Tongguan to the north to capture Yongle County in Hedong, and Puzhou was threatened.

For the safety of Puzhou, Wang Ke strongly demanded the withdrawal of troops.

In addition, Li Keyong's cavalry, which he was proud of, could not be fully utilized in this cramped terrain, so he immediately agreed to the suggestion of retreating to Zhongtiao Mountain.

The Hedong Army retreated and the Zhongwu Army captured Dayang Bridge.

A month later, Zhu Quanzhong sent Hu Xia to attack Hebei City and Ruicheng. Zhu Yougong set up camp in Leishou Mountain, facing Hedong City, the seat of Puzhou, across the Sushui River.

Because a large number of troops were needed to defend Puzhou, Hebei City and Ruicheng were short of troops and were captured by the Zhongwu Army.

At the end of the year, Zhu Quanzhong bypassed Zhongtiao Mountain and headed north from Yongle to join Zhu Yougong, and the war once again fell into a stalemate.

Hebei
Originally, Li Keyong defeated Helian Duo of Yunzhou and Li Kuangwei of Youzhou successively, and was feared in Hebei.

In addition, the new Lulong Jiedushi Liu Rengong was appointed by Li Keyong. Chengde Wang Rong lost the support of Youzhou. Zhaoyi and Wei Bo were ready to make trouble, but they had no choice but to offer 500,000 pieces of silk to Li Keyong and make peace with Jin.

It was precisely because the towns in Hebei surrendered that Li Keyong decided to move south to Hezhong.

Now, seeing that Li Keyong had been stationed in Hezhong for several months and Zhu Quanzhong was trying his best to win him over, Liu Rengong rebelled first and set up an army to establish himself.

Wang Rong also had unclear relations with the envoys of the Zhongwu Army.

If it weren't for the Zhaoyi Army and the Wei Bo Army at his side, he would have probably joined Liu Rengong in rebelling against the Jin Dynasty.

Jiangnan
Dong Chang of western Zhejiang proclaimed himself emperor in Yuezhou, established the Dai Viet Luoping Kingdom, changed the era name to Shuntian, appointed Jiang Zuo, the governor of Wuzhou, as prime minister, and illegally appointed other officials.

When the general Qian Liu's persuasion failed, he reported Dong Chang to the court. Li Ye stripped Dong Chang of his official title and appointed Qian Liu as the Zhejiang East Road Recruiting Envoy and the Prince of Pengcheng, ordering him to attack Dong Chang.

Dong Chang ordered his generals Chen Yu and Cui Wen to station troops in Xiangyan and Shihou, and asked for help from Yang Xingmi, the governor of Huainan.

The two sides continued to fight near Yuezhou.

Henan
Bai Yi defeated Zhu Jin of Yanzhou and occupied Xiaqiu City.

Zhu Jin was defeated and fled to Haizhou, where he recruited soldiers to fight again.

Bai Yi ordered Bai Xiaoqiang and Yuan Qing to lead 40,000 people to continue to capture the remaining cities of the Yanhai Army and completely eliminate Zhu Jin's forces.

He led the remaining 20,000 people north to join Guo Huilong and Li Kerang's troops in attacking Yuncheng.

After two months of siege, Yuncheng's food and grass were running out, and Zhu Xuan decided to dig a deep moat around the city to avoid a fight with Bai Yi.

The thirteenth day of the first lunar month

Just when the moat planned by Zhu Xuan was about to be completed.

Bai Yi ordered Chen Daniu to build a pontoon bridge across the river at night and attack the city.

The Tianping Army was caught off guard, the city gates were lost, and Zhu Xuan was forced to flee.

The 18th day of the first lunar month

Zhu Xuan fled to Zhongdu County and prepared to go south to Haizhou to join Zhu Jin.

Unexpectedly, his wanted order had spread to all counties and prefectures, and the villagers who hid him arrested him and handed him over to Bai Xingjian, the new military commander of Yanzhou.

February 3rd
Zhu Xuan was taken to Bianzhou, the capital of the Xuanwu Army, and Bai Yi ordered his execution, and the Tianping Army disappeared.

February

Zhu Jin, who was resisting the attack of Bai Xiaoqiang and Yuan Qing in Haizhou, was shocked to hear that Zhu Xuan had been beheaded. He led his troops across the Huai River overnight and surrendered to Yang Xingmi, the governor of Huainan.

Yang Xingmi personally went to Gaoyou to welcome Zhu Jin, appointed him as the deputy envoy of the Huainan army, and recommended him as the governor of Wuning.

The Huainan army was accustomed to naval warfare but not good at riding and shooting. However, they gained elite infantry and cavalry from Hedong, Yun, Yan and other places, and their military reputation was greatly boosted.

Zhu Jin fled to Huainan, and the remaining states in Huaibei naturally surrendered as well.

Earlier, when Zhu Jin was defeated in Xia Qiu, he wanted to go to Xinzhou first, but was rejected by Yin Chubin, the governor of Xinzhou. Therefore, he chose to go to Haizhou to fight the enemy instead of going there.

Not long after Zhu Jin left, Bai Xiaoqiang and Yuan Qing led their troops to chase him.

Because the Bai family had a high reputation in Xinzhou, Yin Chubin surrendered before Kang Huaiying of Yanzhou.

Soon, only half of Yanzhou was left. Kang Huaiying, who controlled Yanbei, felt powerless to save the situation. Under the persuasion of Zhu Jin's son Zhu Yongzhen, he took his generals Xin Wan, Yan Bao and others and surrendered Yanbei.

Yanbei is mountainous and easy to defend but difficult to attack. Bai Yi was naturally happy that he could force Kang Huaiying to surrender without bloodshed.

He ordered Zhu Yongzhen to be recommended as Palace Attendant and sent to Chang'an to serve, which was considered as sparing his life.

He also appointed Kang Huaiying as the governor of Caozhou to calm the surrendered generals.

Haizhou was also conquered after Zhu Jin fled south.

Upon hearing that Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin had been defeated one after another, Pinglu King Shifan was shocked. After much deliberation, he believed that he could not resist the powerful army of Xuanwu with only his own town, so he decided to send an envoy to Bianzhou to discuss the matter of surrender.

Bai Yi gladly accepted Wang Shifan's letter of surrender.

Firstly, the army had been fighting for months and was exhausted. Secondly, the treasury had been empty after years of warfare and needed repair.

Thirdly, Qingzhou has Mount Tai as its defense line, which makes it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Unless you go south from Hebei, it is difficult to attack from Henan.

In the end, Bai Yi still recommended Wang Shifan to be the governor of Pinglu and to govern Qingzhou.

At this point, Bai Yi controlled the area south of the Yellow River, north of the Huai River, and east of Hulao Pass-Cai River to the coast, becoming the number one vassal state in the world.

May
After Bai Yi arranged the officials for Xindezhou County, he received the battle report from Hezhong.

Zhu Quanzhong defeated Li Keyong and occupied Puzhou. Wang Ke retreated to Jiangzhou. Wang Gong became the new governor of Hezhong and attached himself to the Zhongwu Army.

Li Keyong was eager to resolve the threat posed by Liu Rengong, so he temporarily stopped fighting with Zhu Quanzhong.

(End of this chapter)