Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 278: Tiger Si comes out of Xun
Huang Chao abandoned Lingnan and launched a northern expedition, which, although it displeased Zhu Wen, caught the Tang court off guard.

The rebel army advanced north to Guilin. Huang Chao oversaw the construction of thousands of large wooden rafts. Starting from Guizhou, they sailed up the Gui River, crossed the Xing'an Ling Canal, entered the Xiang River via the Li River, and took advantage of the spring floods to pass through Lingling and Hengzhou, finally reaching the city of Tanzhou.

At this time, Wang Duo, who came from the Wang clan of Taiyuan, was in charge of the defense of Jingxiang.

In the fifth year of the Qianfu era, after Wang Xianzhi captured Jiangling, Yang Zhiwen, the former military governor of Jingnan, was dismissed. Wang Duo then submitted a memorial to the emperor, saying, "As the prime minister, I am unable to share Your Majesty's burdens while in court. I wish to personally lead the armies to wipe out the rebels."

Emperor Li Xuan was overjoyed upon receiving the report and appointed Wang Duo as Grand Minister of Works, Attendant-in-Ordinary, Governor of Jiangling, Military Governor of Jingnan, and Commander-in-Chief of the various military campaigns. He also enfeoffed him as Duke of Jin.

After Wang Duo arrived in Jiangling, he pacified the refugees, recruited soldiers, and repaired weapons and armor. Before long, he reported to the emperor that Jiangling, which had been in a state of disrepair, had become a strong city with a well-organized military within a year.

He then submitted a memorial requesting that his old friend Li Xi be appointed as the Hunan Provincial Inspector, Commander-in-Chief, and concurrently the Hunan Southern Militia Commissioner to guard the Hunan region.

Li Xi came from a military family; he was the great-grandson of Li Sheng, the Prince of Xiping, and the grandson of Li Su, the Duke of Liang. Both his great-grandfather and grandfather were famous generals in the mid-Tang Dynasty. Li Xi himself was also an eloquent speaker, speaking fluently and persuasively when discussing military strategy, leaving the emperor completely bewildered.

In terms of his resume, after Kou Qianzhi, the deputy military governor of Taining, died in battle, Li Xi went to Taining Town and served as the deputy military governor for a while, which can be considered as getting some experience by following Xue Shuai Qi Kerang.

Wang Duo trusted Li Xi and entrusted him with the main force of Jingnan Garrison. According to Wang Duo, Li Xi had 50,000 elite troops, including the regular armies of Jingnan and Hunan, as well as local militias from various parts of Hunan. Adding the troops from other prefectures, his army numbered nearly 100,000. Even if the bandits didn't march north to their deaths, Li Xi would soon launch a southern expedition to annihilate Huang Chao's rebellion.

When the rebel army arrived on rafts, their banners obscuring the sky, Li's forces were completely dumbfounded.

Li's elite troops were all stationed along the Wuling Mountains to guard against the rebel army's northward advance by land. He originally thought that the Lingqu Canal was too shallow for large ships to pass through, but unexpectedly, Huang Chao used rafts to maneuver flexibly and bypassed Li's defenses, advancing like a whirlwind to the walls of Tanzhou.

After suffering losses due to the malaria, the rebel army actually numbered less than 30,000. However, after entering Hunan, they incited refugees from all over the country to rise up in response, and for a time, the whole of Hunan seemed to be on fire. When the news reached Li's ears, it became that there were hundreds of thousands of bandits who were heading straight for Tanzhou.

Excluding the underreporting caused by receiving salaries without working, there were still 20,000 soldiers in Tanzhou at this time. Li's forces urgently conscripted men from the city and recruited troops from the group training, piecing together 50,000 men to defend the city. However, due to insufficient military supplies and weak city defenses, morale was quite low.

After the rebel army landed, they launched a full-scale attack. Thousands of archers lined up in three rows and divided into several formations, unleashing a barrage of arrows at the city walls. The defenders were caught off guard.

Meanwhile, the rebel commando unit rapidly approached the city walls with specially designed siege ladders and launched a fierce attack. These ladders were mounted on four-wheeled carts and controlled by pulleys for raising, lowering, folding, and unfolding. The ladders had grappling hooks at the front for securing them to the city walls, allowing soldiers to scale the walls.

The rebel army also formed a "firearms team" that used bamboo tubes filled with gunpowder to throw at the city gate. The explosions were deafening, and the defenders, who had never fought a battle before, were stunned.

After fighting for half a day, the city's soldiers had suffered heavy casualties. Li Xi was terrified and abandoned the city, fleeing to Langzhou.

With their commander-in-chief fleeing the battlefield, the defending troops of Tanzhou completely lost morale and surrendered.

Huang Chao ordered the massacre of several thousand of Li's elite soldiers, selecting two thousand of the strongest to be incorporated into the army, and releasing the rest. However, he publicly declared that all fifty thousand armored soldiers of Tanzhou had been executed.

The bodies were loaded onto boats and thrown into the Xiang River. The river was covered with corpses, and the water turned a deep crimson.

The people only saw large numbers of swollen corpses floating from the Xiang River into Dongting Lake and then into the Yangtze River, not knowing their exact number. The news quickly spread that bandits had massacred Tanzhou, killing more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians.

This terrifying news, which could be used by renowned generals like the Fourth Marshal to boost the morale of their troops, was a chilling threat to Wang Duo in Jiangling.

Wang Duo initially believed that with the Li faction defending Hunan, the defense line was impregnable. So he spent his days traveling around with his newly acquired concubines.

Someone reported that Lady Wang had left Chang'an and was heading towards Jiangling. Wang Duo's wife was known for her jealousy and had always forbade him to take concubines; she had clearly come to settle scores with him.

Wang Duo said to one of his staff members, "Huang Chao seems to be heading south, and the lady has come from the north. How can we bear this situation day and night?"

His aide jokingly replied, "Why not surrender to Huang Chao?" Wang Duo laughed heartily as well.

Upon learning of Li's defeat and the sight of corpses floating down the river, Wang Duo's smile vanished. News also arrived that 500,000 bandits were approaching Jiangling.

In fact, Huang Chao's main force was still in Tanzhou at this time, and only a few thousand of the vanguard troops led by Shang Rang had arrived near Jiangling.

Wang Duo was terrified. He thought to himself, "I handed over all the troops in Jingnan to the Li faction. The garrison in Jiangling City is less than 10,000 men. Facing an enemy force of 500,000, running away is not shameful."

So, under the pretext of joining forces with the troops of Shannan East Circuit, he took his concubines and soldiers and headed north to Xiangyang, leaving his subordinate Liu Han Hong to take the blame and be responsible for the city's defense.

This Liu Hanhong was the same gossipy litigious man from the old bandit army. He was originally a minor official in Yanzhou, but later he hijacked supplies and joined Wang Xianzhi. After Wang Xianzhi was defeated and killed, he stole another batch of supplies and joined the government army.

Liu Han Hong was no good at fighting, but he was a master at causing trouble. As soon as Wang Duo left, he said to the soldiers, "The prince has no compassion for us and is leaving us to die. Jiangling is rich and powerful, so we should take its treasures and leave."

The generals all agreed that this made sense, so they ordered their troops to plunder Jiangling, burning and destroying it completely.

When Wang Xianzhi's troops lost control and massacred the city of Jiangling, only about ten thousand people died, and the damage to houses was limited. But this time, Liu Hanhong led the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty to burn and loot Jiangling, killing and burning tens of thousands. The survivors had nowhere to live and were forced to flee into the valleys, only to be caught in a cold snap in spring, with heavy rain and snow falling. The soldiers and civilians froze to death, and the fields were filled with corpses, a truly horrific sight.

When Shang Rang arrived in Jiangling, the city had become a smoking ruin, filled with charred corpses.

Upon receiving the news, Wei Zhuang, a renowned poet from the Wei clan of Jingzhao, composed the poem "Hearing Again of the Fall of Hunan and Jingzhou," lamenting its fate: When will we hear the triumphant songs again? Everywhere, troops are stationed, their banners still unfurled. The emperor relies solely on his red banners for strength, the generals vainly depend on their long purple beards. Corpses fill the Han River, stretching to the hills of Jingzhou; blood stains the Xiang River clouds, reaching the waves of Chu. Ask not of the plight of those displaced in the south; after the battle, only the old mountains and rivers remain.

Half a month later, Huang Chao led the main force of his rebel army to Jiangling and sent troops to prepare to cross the Han River and advance on Xiangyang. However, the government army used a feigned defeat tactic, ambushed Huang Chao in the forest, and killed nearly a thousand of his men.

Huang Chao discussed with his generals, saying, "Jingmen is narrow and difficult to break through. If our army wants to return to the Central Plains, we still need to pass through the Jianghuai region."

Sending troops to the Jianghuai region means engaging in a decisive battle with General Lei and Gao Pian. However, the Jianghuai region has recently suffered a severe famine, and the people are in turmoil. Sending troops to this area will surely attract heroes who will flock to join the army, thus replenishing the troops lost due to the plague.

So the rebel army marched east along the river and captured Ezhou.

At this time, Li Fu, the military governor of Xiangyang who had fought against the Cao army, had died of illness, and the military governor of Shannan East Circuit was replaced by Liu Jurong, who had shot and killed Wang Ying in Mingzhou.

Liu Jurong was overjoyed to see that the rebel army had failed to break through his defenses. He boasted without thinking and directly reported his achievements: "We captured thirteen bandit generals and captured countless others. Chao Fu fled east across the river. We led our army to pursue him and captured eight out of ten of them."

No one with a brain would believe such nonsense. One of his subordinates sarcastically remarked: "The commander has achieved such a great victory, why not pursue further and cut off the head of the Yellow rebels?"

Liu Jurong sighed, “The imperial court has many ungrateful people. In times of crisis, they do not cherish official rewards and forget about them once the matter is over. It would be better to leave the rebels alive and make land for the rich and powerful.”

They actually openly admitted to harboring bandits to enhance their own prestige.

But it's still better than not daring to pursue them at all.

At this time, Huang Chao's army had already gone down the river and arrived in western Zhejiang again.

Due to the previous locust plague, many refugees from the Jianghuai region came to join Huang Chao, who recruited the strongest and most capable to strengthen his army, greatly boosting its morale.

Meanwhile, Lei Shuai and Gao Pian reorganized the troops in Huainan and prepared for a decisive battle with Huang Chao.

Tigers and rhinoceroses are released from their cages, and a fierce battle is imminent.

(End of this chapter)