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

Chapter 961: The Eastern Capital Moves to the Loyal Martial Road, and the Emperor Frequently Moves to Shaoyang Courtyard
June of the fifth year of Qianning
Zhu Quanzhong, the governor of Zhongwu Army, expelled the governor of Dongdu sent by the imperial court and led his troops into Luoyang. The seat of the general's office was moved from Liang County to Luoyang.

He also sent envoys to Guanzhong, saying that Guanzhong was in decline, plagued by wars, and frequently bullied by local warlords, and that it could no longer serve as the capital of the Tang Dynasty.

I entered Luoyang to clean the palace for the saint and expressed my willingness to welcome the saint to Luoyang. I would definitely help the saint end the current chaos and revitalize the Tang Dynasty.

In an instant, the whole world was shaken, and its intention to move westward became obvious.

However, Zhu Quanzhong had his own reasons for choosing this time to enter Luoyang.

First, the situation in Guanzhong is complicated.

Second, the Xuanwu Army had just suffered a defeat in Huainan and was unable to launch a large-scale war.

He had long known that if the Zhongwu Army wanted to expand, it could only do so in four directions: southeast, northwest, northeast and southwest.

To the east is Xuanwu Army, the strongest town in the world, needless to say.

At this time, the strength and situation of the Zhongwu Army were not enough to compete with them and decide the outcome. There was a high possibility that they would be taken advantage of by outsiders. This was not a wise move.

If we go south, we can only cross the Yangtze River and take Jingnan, Changsha and other places.

The two places were respectively controlled by Lei Man, the military governor of Wuzhen Army, and Ma Yin, the military governor of Wuan Army.

One of them was a Wuling barbarian who was good at mountainous terrain; the other was originally a subordinate of Sun Ru. He occupied Hunan, controlled the Yangtze River, and had the advantage of sailing ships. Neither of them was easy to deal with.

Since they had more infantry and cavalry but fewer ships, they would naturally not use their own weakness to attack the enemy's strength and make the same mistake as Bai Yi.

If you can't go south, then go north. To the north are the Hedong and Wei Bo armies.

Hedong has the advantage of Taihang, and Wei Bo has strong guards, and also uses Hedong, Zhaoyi and Xuanwu as external aid, so they cannot be easily conquered.

So they could only turn westward and seize the interests of the imperial court.

It just so happens that Kanto has been in turmoil in the past two years.

At first, Li Ye intended to lead the Hedong army into the pass to help him resolve the threat from the three towns in Guanzhong.

However, the truth was soon revealed.

The three towns decided to take the initiative and quickly sent troops to invade the capital.

Chang'an was shaken, and the imperial guards on both sides were unable to stop it. Li Ye moved to Nanshan overnight to take refuge and wait and see the situation.

Fortunately, the Hedong army arrived in time. Li Keyong crossed the Yellow River from Suizhou to the west, went down along the Luo River, and soon arrived at the capital, defeating the rebel soldiers who were ravaging Chang'an.

After his own safety was guaranteed, Li Ye immediately began to use his identity as emperor.

By the emperor's order, he lavishly rewarded the generals under the three towns, causing them to create chaos among themselves.

In just a few days, Li Maozhen was deserted by his relatives and friends, and his generals announced that they were following the imperial edict to attack him and establish themselves as emperor.

Although several rebellious generals and judges were soon executed, his fear of Li Ye reached its peak at this time, and he submitted a letter of apology.

After temporarily dealing with Li Maozhen, Li Ye used the strategy of driving away the wolf and swallowing the tiger to deprive Wang Xingyu of his current official position and title.

Li Keyong was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Bining camp.

He also issued imperial edicts to reward all the generals under Wang Xingyu.

He then appointed Yuan Jizhen, the governor of Hezhong Prefecture, as the commander of the troops in the four camps of Bining to decouple Wang Xingyu's powers.

Soon, Li Keyong's son Li Cunzhen came to welcome the saint back to the palace on his father's orders.

So Li Ye, who had been taking refuge outside for several months, was finally able to return to Chang'an.

As soon as he returned to Chang'an, Li Ye followed Li Keyong's request and lavishly rewarded pro-Jin court officials in order to win over the Hedong Army to his own use.

Two months later, the Hedong Army defeated Wang Xingyu's rebels in Liyuanzhai, capturing and killing tens of thousands of enemy troops. Only Wang Xingyu was able to hold the city.

A few days later, Wang Xingyu, his wife, and more than 500 of his subordinates broke out and escaped. When they arrived in Gyeongju, they were killed by their own subordinates.

After quelling the rebellion in Guanzhong, Li Ye was very happy and issued an imperial decree to appoint Li Keyong as the temporary Grand Tutor and Minister of the Central Secretariat, and promoted him to the King of Jin, with a fief of 9,000 households, and gave him the honorific title of "Loyal and Faithful Minister of Suppressing the Rebellion". That month, Li Keyong returned to Taiyuan.

However, not long after Li Keyong returned, Li Maozhen thought that the capital was empty and launched an attack again.

Li Ye ordered Prince Tan to reorganize the army and wait for the chaos, and ordered Prince Tong, Prince Tan, and Prince Yan to lead the four armies of Ansheng, Zhenchen, Baoning, and Xuanhua respectively to defend the areas near the capital.

As a result, the imperial army's resistance failed, the defense line collapsed, and the capital fell under the iron hoof again.

When the Qizhou army approached the capital, the princes had no choice but to lead the remaining imperial guards to escort Li Ye's carriage to Taiyuan.

When Li Ye stayed in Weibei, he looked at the Chang'an city wall in the distance and burst into tears. He was absolutely unwilling to go to Taiyuan.

Because he knew that once he really went to Taiyuan, he would become a puppet. What difference would he make from the last emperors of Northern Xia?

But now Li Maozhen's Qizhou soldiers in Guanzhong are rampaging and want to kill me. The only way to save my life is to go to Taiyuan.

As long as you save your life, there is nothing that cannot be achieved.

Just as Li Ye was about to strengthen his faith, Han Jian of Huazhou sent his son Han Chong to present a memorial, asking about the emperor's daily life and requesting the emperor to stay in Huazhou.

Li Ye was overjoyed. As long as he did not leave Guanzhong, he still had hope of returning to Chang'an.

Han Jian was immediately granted the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Capital Region, Envoy for Pacification and Administration, and Envoy for Expedition of Transport of Goods to Various Provinces.

And went to Huazhou overnight.

When Li Ye arrived in Fuping, Han Jian came to pay homage to him. Both the emperor and his minister burst into tears, hating the tyranny of the vassal states.

With the protection of Han Jian's Huazhou army, Li Ye stayed in Huazhou and used the office as his palace.

It was not until Zhu Quanzhong entered Luoyang that the situation changed significantly. Li Maozhen, Han Jian and Li Keyong discussed and established a temporary alliance.

They decided that they would rather let Li Ye return to Chang'an than let him fall into Zhu Wen's hands.

In August of the fifth year of Qianning, with the tacit consent of all parties, Li Ye returned to Chang'an from Huazhou and looked at the palaces and markets in front of him, which had been destroyed by the rebel soldiers and left only ashes in the capital.

He silently announced the change of the era name to "Guanghua" to celebrate.

However, Li Ye did not have a few days of peace after returning to Chang'an.

After the vassal states chose not to interfere in Chang'an for the time being due to some strange balance.

The old conflicts between the eunuchs and bureaucrats who were suppressed by the local vassal states were aroused again.

However, the court officials and bureaucrats had undergone a thorough reshuffle after the warlords from all sides entered the capital, and those who can gain a foothold in the current court all have the support of a powerful vassal.

Even the Shence Army, which was originally controlled by eunuchs, had been completely destroyed in the successive battles to attack and defend Chang'an.

Therefore, the eunuchs at this time were no longer the powerful eunuchs they once were.

Photochemical Year 3
The eunuchs, led by Lieutenant Liu Jishou, made a last-ditch effort.

They planned to depose Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, enthrone the crown prince, and restore the government.

They succeeded due to the convenience of their location.

November

The eunuchs implemented their plan and locked Li Ye in the Shaoyang Courtyard, which he was most familiar with. In order to prevent him from escaping, they poured molten iron on the locks and delivered his daily meals through a small hole dug in the wall.

Although they imprisoned Li Ye, when it came to deposing and enthroning the emperor, they hesitated, and many internal discussions failed to produce any results.

Some of them were afraid that the crown prince they supported would be opposed by local vassal states such as Li Keyong, Li Maozhen and Han Jian.

This led to the local vassal states raising troops to punish the eunuchs, a repeat of the incident of Tian Lingzi, which resulted in the collective demise of the eunuchs.

So some of them chose to throw the burden to Zhu Quanzhong.

(End of this chapter)