The Emperor ordered Zhao Tang

Chapter 208 Turning Point

South of Taiping County, Jiang Prefecture, Hezhong, the ancient capital of Jin State.

This place has long been a den of ghosts.

After Pang Shigu withdrew, the desperate Bian army was shrouded in an iron curtain of despair.

In the first few days, they just cried, made noises, and cursed. After venting their anger, pain, and regret towards Zhu Wen, Li the thief, Zhang Cunjing, Emperor Hao, the world, their families, etc., they were out of food and spent their days wandering around the city with their hands behind their backs, fighting. They searched for birds, rats, snakes, and insects, and killed and plucked the feathers of the short, thin, and injured comrades and put them in the pot. After seven or eight days, there were no more rats, fine soil, wild vegetables, etc., the livestock were killed, and the weak soldiers were extinct. The cost of survival of the fittest became higher and higher, and some people disappeared secretly.

At first, the military officers enforced military law, shooting arrows at traitors and disemboweling those they caught. But it didn't work. After only three or four days, more than half of the officers and soldiers who tried to restrain the army and stop the escapees were killed. The escapees changed from sparse and furtive to groups of three or five, calling friends, and then to bustling and filing out.

In the end, even thousands of long swords and long straights left without saying goodbye.

By the first day of the twelfth lunar month, only about 3,000 of the more than 20,000 Bian troops stationed in Jincheng and nearby fortresses remained. Their will was not as strong as that of the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing and the people of Shu. In order to recapture Chang'an, the Guanzhong warriors and the Shu army had eaten meat for two years.

There was no one else around Zhang Cunjing except for dozens of his fellow townsmen from Qiao and Pei who refused to abandon him.

Murong Zhang, who had been hungry for days and nights, felt a cramp in his abdomen. He held onto the wall to steady his staggering center of gravity. He shook his head uncontrollably, a bitter taste welled up in his throat, his cheeks twitched, and he vomited a pool of dark blue sour water with a few "wow" sounds.

"It's snowing hard, let's go inside and warm ourselves by the fire..." The one who persuaded Murong Zhang was Linghu Tao, they were childhood friends. The dozens of people who hadn't run away yet, including Zhang Cunjing, actually grew up on the same street, and they were even closer.

"Wait, wait...where's your dagger? Let me use it."

Linghu Tao hesitated, opened his mouth, and said, "It's lost."

Although Murong Zhang's eyes were full of stars, he could still tell that Linghu Tao had a strange expression, and he immediately got angry: "Just take it if I tell you to!"

"Today I will cut the back, tomorrow I will cut the legs, how many pounds of meat do you have to cut..."

"You don't need to worry about me."

"What are you doing!" Linghu Tao was pounced on and pinned down by Murong Zhang.

The two of them tangled together on the narrow dressing table.

"You're a piece of asshole, you're a piece of asshole!" After two or three rounds, Linghu Tao was ridden under someone's crotch.

Murong Zhang had let his hair down, and he snatched the dagger from Linghu Tao and held it upright in his palm. He jumped back, and while Linghu Tao was staggering to his feet, he cut off a large piece of flesh from his leg and pressed it into the bowl on the windowsill.

"Hu... Ho... Haha..." Murong Zhang panted, let go of the bloody dagger, and limped back to the room with the bowl in his hand.

On the couch, Zhang Cunjing, who had a high fever, clutched his sleeves with his fingers, coughing out his lungs. Not counting the blinded eye, he had more than twenty wounds, several layers of gauze were gray and black, and several large basins of blood were washed. Murong Zhang boiled minced meat and force-fed him.

After a while, Zhang Cunjing regained some energy, propped himself up on the bed and sat up, shouting, "Draft a memorial and report it to the two saints."

Murong Zhang spread out his pen and ink.

"Military affairs are not constant, they depend on the generals. The reckless boy has weakened the military and the country. He has stolen the title and has overturned it. The military fortune is declining, and the chaotic politics is rampant. If it were someone else, the parents and soldiers would not be here today. Hezhong is thousands of miles away from us, and we are imprisoned in a corner. Once we raise an army, we will recruit people from all directions and transfer supplies by land and water. Boats, carriages, people and horses are boiling from far and near. The knights of Guanlong plow the fields and dig holes. The wild mountains and ridges are full of people. The exhausted people died on the roadside, and it was difficult for us to make progress. We should give up the easy and take the difficult. The art of subduing is to abandon the chicken ribs and protect Huai, Meng, and Heyang, and face the Yellow River in Tang. Treat men and women well, so that the common people don't have to fight, and make people's hearts belong to us. This is my humble opinion. Now we should stay away, only Your Majesty, the Queen, is as constant as the moon."

Hearing this, Linghu Tao and his followers gathered around the bed and cried, "Marshal, please recite the Buddha's name!"

Zhang Cunjing ignored this, glanced at them, and weakly warned them word by word: "The first lord said, do not do evil for the sake of smallness, and do not fail to do good for the sake of smallness. Only virtue and morality can win the hearts of the people; no one dares to neglect. Let's go, leave the city and fight back, and save your life!"

"Commander!"

"Let's do it together. Emperor Li... will definitely forgive you."

Zhang Cunjing murmured like a dream: "When I reach Geshuhan's position, I will die. Today I will lead the horse for this one, and tomorrow I will call that saint... You, you... The previous bounty, I am the viscount, right? Take it, take my head..."

"Big brother..."

"Go, hurry up." Zhang Cunjing urged again in a fly-like voice: "Go, go, I can't see anyone, there is only darkness in front of me, and the wind is blowing."

Murong Zhang was panicked and hurriedly asked everyone to chant Buddhist scriptures.

But at this moment, Zhang Cunjing seemed to be dying. Amid the sound of chanting and the howling wind and snow, Zhang Cunjing, lying on the broken mat, slowly had a deathly look on his face...

"Marshal!" There was a sudden burst of crying.

*****
On the third day of the twelfth month of the first year of Qianning, the gates of the ancient city were opened. Murong Zhang, Linghu Tao, Zhen Yi and others, the commander of the imperial army and the secretary of the camp, killed Zhang Cunjing and surrendered. The remaining 3,000 Bian soldiers also took off their armor and trotted outside the city to form a team.

The former capital of Duke Wen of Jin, this inland fortress in the river, has since submitted to the imperial court.

"I have been fighting Zhang Cunjing for five months, and I wish I had never seen him in person. You have done a great job in killing the stubborn bandit." Seeing that Zhang Cunjing's head was abnormally clean, Murong Zhang and his men's eyes were red, and the saint figured out the truth. He immediately went with the flow and helped Zhang Cunjing.

A worthy opponent.

What a thief!

But this is not the reason why the saints fulfilled his wish. The purpose is to prove the fact that Murong Zhang and his kind committed homicide and to cut off their living space in Zhu Wen's camp. These people cannot be killed, and if they are spared, it would be like letting a tiger go back to the mountain. So they must be driven to be hawks and dogs.

"Forget it. Send Zhang Cunjing and other officers who were killed back to the capital. Leave their bodies exposed on Gouji Ridge and hang their heads on a willow tree. This matter... is up to you. What's your name?" The saint asked, pointing his whip at a Bian general who had surrendered before.

"As you command. I am Dong Qi, the former First Commander of the Left Wing of the Long Sword." Dong Qi bowed his head and replied. After doing this, he would be enemies with dozens of generals led by Murong Zhang. "Your Majesty!" Murong Zhang's eyes widened. Didn't they say that Emperor Li was kind and righteous? Why did he do such a thing as whipping a corpse? He is also a dog-footed emperor!

"Two armies are fighting, each serving their own master, each with their own frustrations..." Murong Zhang started to think, but was interrupted by the other party waving his hand: "Enough."

This is not a war between two countries or an annexation of a feudal lord. This is a life-and-death rebellion and suppression, which will end with one side being killed and the whole clan being destroyed and the old nest being turned upside down.

"They all killed them with swords and spears in jest." This is how the An-Shi rebels treated Li and his followers. When the Guanlong troops attacked them, they recovered Luoyang. The Shuofang troops and others took the Henan bandit territory and killed and plundered for three months.

Chao's troops entered the pass - "tortured the people for money, seized the wives and daughters of the common people and raped them, burned down their houses, and killed the officials of the imperial family without mercy. When Chao counterattacked the capital, the angry people turned against Li and massacred more than 80,000 people."

"Chao's army of 100,000 fought a fierce battle with the royal army at Liangtianbi. The princes captured tens of thousands of Chao's bandits and slaughtered their corpses over a distance of 30 miles, building a Jingguan." This was the revenge of the vassal states in the northwest of the capital and Li Keyong.

Zhang Cunjing was a core member of the rebel army. Exposuring his corpse was only the most basic punishment. Even if the saint felt sorry for him, he would not violate the political order for this. Tolerance is not shown in such matters. The dragon court under the buttocks determines the head. As an emperor, the first consideration is how to maintain the rule, suppress the peasants, and make them dare not rebel, and then seek the welfare of the people.

According to convention, once the Zhu rebellion is quelled, Zhang the thief will also be liquidated and exterminated along with the Zhu family.

However, if people like Murong Zhang had cleared their name and come out of hiding by then, the imperial court would have shown some leniency to them out of consideration for the new nobles' ideas.

"Attendant, King Cao said that Murong Zhangli should be conferred the title of Hu Zi." The sage gave Zhao Jia another instruction.

"only."

The rewards for Bian thieves are divided into three categories.

Whoever rebelled with the heads of Zhu Wen and Zhang Hui would be made a king and given the power to proclaim the emperor.

Kou Yanqing, Pang Shigu, Ge Congzhou, Zhang Guiba, Jing Xiang, Zhu Youwen, and Pei Di were at this level and were worth three million yuan as founding county dukes.

Zhang Cunjing belonged to the Viscount group.

The rest, such as Wang Yanzhang, Li Si'an, etc., were only given money and goods. The rest, such as Yang Shihou, the governor of Weizhou who controlled the last emperor in later generations, were pure minions at this time and may have died in a battle as the historical line changed.

At this time, Liu Xun, Lun Hongyi, and Yang Kexuan were leading troops to take over Jincheng and clean up the battlefield. The saint did not want to go into trouble, so he mounted his horse and came to the Bian army standing all over the ground to deal with the more than 3,000 diehards who finally left the city.

"I am the Li Ni, Li Thief, Li Shu, and Chang'an Boy you all call me."

The skinny Bian soldiers either looked numb, or indifferent, or looked around sensing something ominous, or burst into laughter at the opening remarks.

"I am a native of Henan, and I have done nothing wrong. I was forced to do so by torture. So at the beginning of the siege, we repeatedly told you that if you leave the city to fight, you will not be harmed. If you resist to the end, you will not be pardoned by the law. More than 10,000 people came out one after another, and I thought that peace would be achieved in Jincheng. Unexpectedly, you are such a traitor that you are so stubborn that you will not be able to get in. You have been waiting until today... What are you planning? You know that I don't kill prisoners indiscriminately, and I even treat the wounded. So if you can fight, you can hurt me as much as possible. If you can't fight, you can surrender and be captured to save your life?"

As he spoke, the soldiers surrounding him sharpened their swords.

Treat the prisoners and the wounded well, try to win over the hearts of the normal Bian army and disintegrate their fighting will. This is the policy of the saints. The more than 10,000 Bian soldiers who left the city before were all given leniency. But the beast soldiers and these stubborn gamblers do not need to be reformed. The consumption rate of the evil army has not kept up with the replenishment, and it continues to expand. Even if each person has two cakes, it is a great waste of food.

Executed on the spot.

Make the rebels in the pseudo-Liang territory understand: if you don't want to die, either don't fight with Li Sheng, or don't fall into the hands of Wang's army when fighting with Wang's army, or surrender decisively during the persuasion.

Under the gray sky, the mournful cries and curses of more than three thousand people rang out.

"You bastard! I regret surrendering to you."

"Saint, you are the emperor of the Tang Dynasty. You must be merciful."

"Don't kill me, I was forced into battle by Zhu Wen, the thief Zhu!"

“Pfft, that hurts…”

"Cut it! Cut it this way, quickly!"

After more than five months of siege, Jincheng was finally conquered. In this campaign, the casualties in the battles of Jishuiyuan, Meiliangchuan, Guanlongting, Xiaopingjin, Mengdu, etc., plus the sick, missing, executed, and cannibalized soldiers within the Bian bandits, amounted to more than 70,000 casualties.

More than 10,000 of the 35,000 elite troops Zhu Wen deployed in Hezhong surrendered when they were left with no other options. More than 6,000 were killed in attacks, defenses and breakouts, and the last 3,000 who surrendered were executed.

Zhang Cunjing, acting governor of Yingzhou, commander-in-chief of all armies at home and abroad, envoy of the Hezhong camp, and inspector of the Left Prime Minister, was killed in battle.

The remaining Bian troops in various places evacuated in large numbers. On the seventh day of the twelfth month, Quwo Town General An Guoyan encountered Wubudai and Zhao En who were chasing him on his way to Huaizhou. An's troops fought back bravely and broke through to the bank of the Yellow River. An Guoyan died, and only a thousand of the more than 3,000 defenders were left and fled back to Henan in a panic.

On the ninth day, 20,000 infantry and cavalry of the royal army, led by Chen Xiong, Li Zan and Liu Zhijun, approached Jiyuan County, and the Jiyuan town generals fled without a fight.

On the 13th, Wang Zimei and Xiao Xiu led 30,000 Zhao troops to the city of Huaizhou. Perhaps the news of Zhang Cunjing's death was too shocking, and Huaizhou fled without a fight. Li Duo, Shi Yanhong, Chen Lingxun and other troops burned their camps and fled; Wang and Xiao entered Huaizhou.

On the 15th, Wu Yiji, Tian Heng and Ashina Gaoyang of Wei Bo led 10,000 cavalry and infantry troops out of Xinxiang and attacked Heyin Bridge.

On the same day, the sage promoted Yang Shouliang, the acting Shaanxi and Guo Surveillance Commissioner, to the position of Shaanxi and Guo Surveillance Commissioner, and conferred him the title of Marquis of Changshui, but he had to conquer the territory himself.

On December 25, the emperor returned to Changchun Palace. At this point, the Battle of Hezhong was completely over. The invasion force that the Bian people had built in Hebei through two incursions was uprooted. The prefectures and counties in Henan were in a state of panic, and the princes were all shocked. The war to suppress the rebellion entered a turning point, and there was hope for the suppression of the Zhu Rebellion.

(End of this chapter)