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

Chapter 981 Liang Long shed blood, Tang Song Ba, civil and military gathered together to remonstrate with the elders
The first year of Tongguang in the Later Tang Dynasty (the 22nd year of Tianyou in the Tang Dynasty)

June
Li Cunxu personally went to Puzhou and ordered the Tang army to go out of the camp to challenge Duan Ning of Shanzhou and tie down the Liang army's strength.

On the one hand, he ordered his counsellor Guo Chongtao to lead troops to the other side of Puzhou City and build a new city on the east bank of the Yellow River to support the Tang army in Tongzhou.

Wang Yanzhang hurriedly led his troops back to attack Xincheng, and also placed more than ten giant ships in the middle of the Yellow River to cooperate in the battle.

Guo Chongtao held the city firmly, and Li Cunxu also led his troops from Hedong County to reinforce.

Wang Yanzhang failed to capture Tongzhou after a long siege and was attacked from behind by Xincheng, so he had no choice but to retreat to Fenglingdu.

June 30

Li Cunxu resumed contact with Li Siyuan's troops in Tongzhou.

July
Wang Yanzhang attacked Tongzhou again and was repelled by the Tang army again. Fortunately, he recovered Weinan County and then withdrew his troops to retreat to Huazhou.

August
Zhu Youzhen deployed four counterattacks: Duan Ning attacked Puzhou, Dong Zhang attacked Taiyuan, Huo Yanwei attacked Mingzhou, and Wang Yanzhang attacked Tongzhou.

Plan to launch a general attack on the Tang State in October.

However, due to the dispersion of troops, Luoyang was left with a shortage of troops.

September
At the request of Tang Emperor Li Cunxu, Duke Baijian of Song led troops to attack Luoyang.

Although Bai Jian disagreed with Li Cunxu's enthronement and issued a manifesto to condemn him, it did not prevent the two from forming an alliance to fight against the Liang State.

September

Song generals Kang Yanxiao and Zhu Lingde attacked Luoyang from Ruzhou in the north.

Chen Yanzhong, the commander of Yique Pass in Liang, surrendered and informed Bai Jian of all the military situation in Luoyang, suggesting that the Song army take advantage of the situation and attack Luoyang.

September

The Song army rushed to the outskirts of Luoyang, and the military and civilians in Luoyang were shocked.

September 21

The Song general Yuan Zi'ang attacked and captured the southern city of Heyang, cutting off the Liang army in Hebei from going south to support Luoyang.

September 23
Because Luoyang was under-defended, the Song army entered Luoyang from the southwest gate and Luoyang fell.

More than 300 Liang army officers were captured, forcing the Liang army in Luoyang to retreat to Xin'an.

October
Because Luoyang fell, Wang Yanzhang and Duan Ning, who were guarding Huazhou and Shanzhou, had to allocate part of their troops to guard against the Song army in Luoyang.

October 9th
Taking advantage of the Liang army's insufficient strength, Li Cunxu forced his way across Fengling Ferry and captured Tongguan.

At the same time, Li Siyuan crossed the Wei River and went to Weinan for the second time.

Wang Yanzhang retreated to Zheng County to protect himself and was trapped by the Tang army in the Weinan River Valley.

October 13

Li Cunxu used Li Siyuan as the vanguard, captured Zheng County, and captured and killed Wang Yanzhang.

At that time, all the generals advised Li Cunxu to attack Chang'an first, occupy the Guanzhong states, and then return to defend Taiyuan and defeat Zhu Youzhen's main force.

Only Li Siyuan insisted on taking advantage of the fact that the Liang army's retreat was cut off and its forces were dispersed to defeat Zhu Youzhen of Huaizhou first.

Li Cunxu then ordered Li Siyuan to lead the vanguard army to double their speed and march towards Huaizhou, and asked Guo Chongtao to lead the main force to follow behind, while he led a small part of the army into Chang'an to control the Liang court.

October 19

Li Siyuan went straight down the Yellow River, completely ignoring the remnants of the Liang army in Huazhou and Shanzhou along the coast, and reached Huaizhou.

At this time, there were only a thousand or so soldiers of Zhu Youzhen's personal army left in Henei City, Huaizhou.

Li Siyuan marched without stopping and led his troops to attack the city directly.

On that day, the city was broken and Zhu Youzhen committed suicide.

On the same day, Li Cunxu arrived in Chang'an, and the Chang'an defender Wang Zan opened the city and surrendered.

Li Cunxu entered Chang'an from Mingde Gate.

I don’t know if it was God’s will, but Emperor Zhu Youzhen of Liang and the Liang capital Chang’an were not in the same place, but they died on the same day.

Therefore, it can be officially declared that the State of Liang was destroyed.

October 23
The prefectures and counties around Chang'an issued an edict of surrender, and the Liang army generals on the Zelu front and Xiangzhou also surrendered to the Tang generals on the opposite side.

Li Cunxu captured Huai, Shan, Hua, Shang, Guo, Wei, Xiang, Ze, and Lu states without a single drop of blood. As for most of the vast Guanzhong area west of Chang'an, it was the territory of Qi.

At this point, the north was divided into east and west by the Tang and Song dynasties, and the south was dominated by many countries, with a pattern of dominating the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers officially emerging.

October 28
The Song army occupied all the areas around Luoyang, and the Jin and Song dynasties divided the area with the Yellow River, Mount Xiao, and Songyang Pass as the boundary.

Bai Jian appointed Yuan Ziang as the governor of Luozhou, with an army of 20,000, stationed in Yi and Luo, and the rest of the troops returned.

December 3

Kaifeng City, Bianzhou, Duke of Song's Mansion

Bai Jian came to the Qinzheng Hall as usual to handle today's state affairs.

As soon as I entered the hall, I felt something was wrong.

"Where are the political and military secretaries? We haven't understood today's government affairs yet. Why are they absent? Who is on duty?" Bai Jian summoned the secretary-counselor in the hall and asked dissatisfiedly.

The secretary of the Record Office bowed and said, "Secretary Bai and Military Secretary Cui are both waiting for you in the side hall."

"If you don't come to see me on time, it's outrageous. Lead the way. I want to see what they are going to do."

As Bai Jian turned around and walked towards the side hall, the secretary-general quickly followed, but did not dare to really walk in front to lead the way.

After walking just over a hundred steps, Bai Jian arrived at the annex hall of the Qinzheng Hall, which was also a side hall.

The eunuch pushed open the palace door and as soon as he stepped in, he felt that the atmosphere was wrong.

The new Political Secretary Bai Zhanwen and the new Military Secretary Cui Shaojie also took office this year.

Along with them were the Jiedushi of Xuanwu Army, Prince Bai Xi, the left and right provincial governors Jian Xianwen and Zhao Huafei, the left and right finance envoys Shao Ning and Su Conggui, and other important officials of the Song Dynasty who were above the third rank.

The clan leader of the clan house, Bai Yu, the left clan leader and the chief of the clan courtyard, Bai Ling, the right clan leader and the chief of the clan elders' courtyard, Bai Qian, the judge of clan affairs and the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Guard, Bai Liangyi, and other core clan elders at the department level of the Bai clan courtyard.

These people include almost all the civil and military officials of Song State. Now that they are gathered together, Bai Jian has to be nervous.

Seeing Bai Jian standing at the door without saying anything, the ministers present looked at each other, and finally pushed Bai Qian to speak.

Bai Qian is a highly respected elder of the Bai family. He is in charge of the clan elders' courtyard and the clan elders' council. He is also the elder of Bai Jian. He is the son of the previous head of the family, Bai Rui, and the brother of the current head of the family, Bai Yi.

He stood in the front row of the crowd, trembling, holding a cane. Although his movements were not smooth, he had a good way of keeping fit and had a youthful appearance despite his white hair.

He just said, "Young Master, you are fifty-nine this year, and next year you will be sixty, which can also be called the age of hearing obedience."

"Although he is considered old, he is not considered long-lived in the family."

"Take me for example. I am eighty-three years old this year, the same age as the Patriarch. I just don't know if I can have a say in front of the Young Master."

Before Bai Qian could finish his words, Bai Jian quickly stepped forward to support him and said in a respectful tone:
"What did you say, Uncle San? No matter how I behave outside, I am still a junior in front of you. If I have done anything wrong, please point it out, Uncle San."

"Okay." Bai Qian's turbid eyes suddenly revealed a hint of expression, and he kept knocking on the stone slabs of the hall with his cane, making a "dong dong dong" sound.

"In that case, let me ask you one question: when will you become emperor?"

Bai Jian clicked his tongue and laughed awkwardly: "Third uncle, you are joking. Haven't you heard the ancestral teachings?"

"Humph." Bai Qian's face turned stern, and he shook off Bai Jian's support, staring at him and lecturing him, "You are so pedantic."

Although he was scolded by his elders in public, Bai Jian still acted respectful.

"Our ancestors made the oath of 'not becoming kings' in order to suppress the greed of the people at that time, set an example themselves, and eliminate the bad habits that had existed for hundreds of years since the end of the Han Dynasty."

"Now the world is in chaos. The Tang Dynasty has turned against the emperor, so the warriors have become powerful and the moral principles are in chaos. We need to correct the mistakes and restore the balance between civil and military spirits."

"But because of your own selfish interests, you refused to listen to the advice of others and have been reluctant to ascend the throne."

"I want to ask you, if you continue like this, who will follow you? By then, you will be deserted by your friends and relatives, your country will be overthrown, and your family will be in trouble. Is this what you want to see?"

"If that's the case, why did you come out to work in the first place? Why did you inherit the Xuanwu Army and fight in the south and the north, and end up being hated by others for nothing? It would have been better for you to join a benevolent prince and continue the family line."

"Since you have chosen this path, don't be shy. This is not the way of a member of the Bai family."

Bai Jian listened to the scolding of the clan elder. Such valuable advice was like a good medicine that woke him up.

He looked at the people present. They included his comrades-in-arms, his subjects, and even his own clansmen.

They gathered together because they believed in themselves, but because of their momentary fear, they almost fell into the devil's trap.

Adjusting his sleeves and taking a step back, Bai Jian saluted solemnly towards Bai Qian and said seriously, "The words of the clan elders are like a bolt from the blue. I will learn from your teachings."

(End of this chapter)