Ancestors, please don't crawl out again.

Chapter 101 Yang Feng, you are guilty of a heinous crime
Faced with this scene, the Fengxiang soldiers tried to stop in horror, but their companions behind them did not know what was happening in front of them, and even as they stopped, those behind them continued to move forward.

Then keep squeezing.

Then the soldiers in front watched in horror as they continued to move forward.

"Stop!"

"Stop crowding!"

……

They screamed like crazy.

But it didn't work.

This was a massive army of thirty thousand men, and they had already formed a battle formation before retreating. Their retreat also remained roughly in the same formation, stretching across the plain for miles, hundreds of meters thick. Those at the rear couldn't possibly see what was happening in front; they simply saw the front halt, and then they continued forward, their formation constantly compressed, becoming denser and denser, until it became a dense human wall.

But those behind are still squeezing in, and some are even deliberately pushing forward to see clearly what is happening in front.

In the end, the human wall that stretched for miles continued to move forward.

This is different from being squeezed by terrain obstructions. For those in front, there is actually no obstruction in front of them.

Want to save your life?
They have to hold off all their companions behind them!

They cried and tried their best to move backwards, but those who were invisible behind them were still moving forward. In the chaotic squeezing and even cursing at each other, the formation that was compressed to the limit moved forward bit by bit.

The backs of those soldiers who were desperately trying to escape death kept hitting the crack that was difficult to see with the naked eye.

Then the body was cut off bit by bit.

"Your Majesty!"

A majestic roar resounded through the sky.

In the air in front of them, a majestic figure hung high, looking down like a god.

The desperate soldiers knelt down before him almost instinctively.

Then they were pleasantly surprised to find that all they had to do was kneel down. They hurriedly crawled forward and continued to kowtow to the figure, while those at the back who refused to kneel were still pushed forward in the shoving and were cut off bit by bit with despair. The smart ones also woke up and quickly knelt down, learning from others to crawl forward and crawl over the severed bodies.

Then more and more people knelt down.

"Since you are subjects of the Tang Dynasty, you should obey the orders of the Tang Dynasty court.

The appointment and abolition of the Jiedushi are both done by the imperial court. How can you make the decision on your own?
dissatisfied?

Even if you are dissatisfied, you must obey the order first.

You cannot admit that you are subjects of the Tang Dynasty only when it benefits you."

Yang Feng shouted.

The officers and soldiers of the Fengxiang Army lay on the ground, trembling with fear and not daring to look up.

At this time, Li Maozhen stepped forward sensibly.

"Grand Master, these people are confused for a moment. In the past, the court was dominated by corrupt officials, eunuchs controlled the country, and they were corrupt, perverted the law, and levied heavy taxes. The people were disappointed with the court, so they were unwilling to obey the court's orders. But this is not disloyalty to the Tang Dynasty. After all, in this world, those who still respect the legitimate rule of the Tang Dynasty are only a few towns in Fengxiang.

I hope the Imperial Master will show mercy."

He quickly saluted and said.

"The past is past, all the tyrants and treacherous ministers are dead.

Now that the imperial court has been newly established, and the world is making a fresh start, everything begins today. From now on, imperial orders must not be disobeyed, and national laws and military orders must be obeyed. All vassal states must be abolished, and prefectures and counties restored. Anyone who supports the enthronement of a successor and opposes the imperial court will be charged with treason. I have been sent by the Lord of Heaven to oversee the imperial court. If you are dissatisfied with the imperial decrees in the future, you may appeal to me. I will appeal to the imperial court on your behalf for their thorough consideration. However, once the decrees are implemented, they must not be disobeyed.

The court sent an imperial envoy to handle the aftermath of the Fengxiang Army and escort Prince Qi back to retrieve his family.

The officers and soldiers of Fengxiang Army will temporarily stay in the capital."

Yang Feng shouted.

"I bow to thank the Imperial Master."

Li Maozhen knelt down and said.

"I bow to thank the Imperial Master."

"I bow to thank you, Imperial Master."

……

The Fengxiang officers and soldiers behind him all shouted in fear.

The rest was simple. Guo Xin was appointed Imperial Envoy to lead his troops and escort Li Maozhen back to Chang'an to retrieve his family. The officers and soldiers of Fengxiang were disbanded and incorporated into the Sixteen Guards. Officials were reappointed from the various prefectures under Li Maozhen's jurisdiction. However, it wasn't that simple. These prefectural governors were themselves akin to vassal states. It was a common practice back then: Jiedushi, prefectural governors, military commanders, and tuanlianshi, all of them warlords of varying sizes, some even inherited their positions from generation to generation. But now, all of these were being abolished and replaced with new ones.

To refuse is to rebel...

In fact, I definitely won’t accept it!
In fact, Li Jihui led his troops to raid Fengxiang that day.

His reaction was still quick.

However, Li Maozhen was prepared and sent someone to inform his son in advance.

The latter closed the city gate to block it.

Li Jihui failed to enter the city. While he was still considering whether to attack, Guo Xin had already arrived. The two sides fought under the city. Li Jihui was ultimately defeated by Guo Xin and his Anxi Army. After the defeat, he retreated and then surrendered Bingzhou to Zhu Wen again, including Hu Jingzhang, the governor of Baoda.

They had no choice but to vote for Zhu Wen.

Since the new court doesn’t keep the Jiedushi, who will follow it?

Although surrendering to Zhu Wen was risky, after all, Li Jihui had already betrayed him once, but it was still better than this new court!
As for Li Keyong...

At this time, Li Keyong was at his lowest point, which was the early stage of the Battle of Jiazhai.

It was the end of May in 907 AD, Zhu Wen had been emperor for just one month, and the Liang army had just begun its attack on Luzhou. This was essentially the peak period for the Later Liang dynasty, which peaked with its founding, but lost to Li Yazi the following year and began its decline. Therefore, Zhu Wen had little time to focus on this area during this period. After all, Guanzhong was not his core interest. Compared to his lifelong rival, the sudden emergence of the Tang Dynasty was a difficult distraction. Since Li Jihui and Hu Jingzhang had surrendered, and Liu Zhijun was also present, he decided to let these three families hold their own. Ultimately, Zhu Wen simply appointed a new governor of the Youguo Army, Liu Han, the same Liu Han who had been responsible for the death of Wang Zhongshi.

But the latter was more of a military supervisor. After arriving in Huazhou, he summoned Li Jihui and Hu Jingzhang with Zhu Wen's imperial edict.

The two didn't dare to go.

They just sent their son to receive the order.

As for this imperial edict, it was of course Zhu Wen who forced the three families to attack Chang'an.

And not only them, but also Han Xun, the governor of Shuofang, and Li Sijian, the governor of Xiazhou, who also paid tribute to Zhu Wen, and the ancestor of our Song Dynasty's lifelong enemy, will also join in at the order of the emperor, and finally the troops of the five governors will be combined to encircle and suppress the Tang Dynasty.

then……

No one dared to step forward.

Zhu Wen doesn’t know the situation here, but Liu Zhijun and the other two know!

As for Li Sijian and Han Xun, although they were unaware of the situation here, they had no interest in interfering in the affairs of Guanzhong. Han Xun only controlled Lingzhou, and the lifelong enemy of the Song Dynasty was now just a small fry. He couldn't even defeat Li Jihui. In fact, Li Jihui had just defeated him before, and it was only with the help of Zhu Wen's troops, including Liu Zhijun, who defeated Li Jihui that he was able to retain his territory. To go south to Guanzhong, he had to pass through the territories of Li Jihui and Hu Jingzhang. One of them was in Bining and the other was in Fufang. From Xiazhou, he could only pass through their territories.

He was also afraid that Li Jihui would cheat him!
Of course, Li Jihui was also afraid that he would cheat him, and there was no mutual trust between the two sides at all.

In the end, Zhu Wen's plan of encircling the Tang Dynasty from five directions remained a plan.

Fortunately, the Tang Dynasty had no time to care about them.

Datang is engaged in construction.

Rebuilding the court.

All three provinces and six ministries are involved.

Officials who are not high-ranking enough can just take part-time jobs.

Chang'an City needed repairs, or rather, the ruins needed to be cleared. The Sixteen Guards' garrison troops needed to be rebuilt, or the entire population of the controlled area from Chang'an to Fengxiang needed to be militarized according to the garrison system. However, they weren't sent to fight, but rather to develop water conservancy projects, roads, and even industrial and mining projects. After all, they had to be self-sufficient. Even their food now depended largely on food provided by the Imperial Master, as years of war had nearly destroyed Guanzhong's water conservancy facilities.

Although the population is small now.

It's a pity that even if we add Fengxiang and the population brought by Yang Feng, the population of the area actually controlled by the Tang Dynasty is less than 500,000!

Barely 400,000.

Of course, these constructions have nothing to do with Yang Feng.

The Tang Dynasty court is full of talented people, and they are all elites from famous families...

Qin Qiong too!
It’s just that his family is from the Northern Qi system, and his father is the staff member of Hulugu Guang’s younger brother Hulugu Wudu!

This also includes Luo Shixin. Although there is no record of his ancestors in history, the fact that he, a fourteen-year-old boy, dared to run to Zhang Xutuo, the commander of the Sui army, and got angry because Zhang Xutuo disliked his young age was enough to prove that his family was at least a local tyrant, otherwise he would have been killed by Zhang Xutuo long ago.

Who are you trying to show off to, a troublemaker like you?

Among the founding heroes of the Tang Dynasty, there were very few who came from humble backgrounds.

Zhang Gongjin's father was a governor, and the Zhang family of Dunhuang was a prominent family.

Li Ji...

Those are the real powerful people who have their own troops and fortresses.

These were all educated by elite families. They could charge into battle on horseback and govern the people on foot.

They were successful indeed because they chose the right camp, but it was not the camp that made them successful, but they made the camp successful. The Tang Dynasty was not established by the Li family, but it was these aristocratic families who chose the Li family, which allowed the Li family to rule the world.

As for the Imperial Master...

The national teacher is doing something bad.

Luzhou.

"If I had a son, I would want him to be like Li Yazi."

Yang Feng stood in the forest at night, looking at the surrounded Luzhou City under the moonlight.

Meanwhile, to the north of the city, fully armored Liang soldiers, accompanied by conscripted men, toiled tirelessly through the night to build two horizontal walls with rammed earth and timber. These walls connected three hills, forming the Sanchui Hills where Li Cunxu had become famous. These two walls blocked Luzhou's northern access, blocking Zhou Dewei's attempts to rescue him from the north and preventing Li Sizhao, who was still inside, from storming out.

This served as support for the Liang army's attack.

Originally, there was a tunnel to protect the transportation line.

This is Jiazhai.

Next year Li Cunxu will win his famous battle here.

And Zhu Wen also learned from Cao Cao here...

"If I had a son, I would have liked him to be like Li Yazi. As for my son, he is nothing but a pig and a dog!"

Of course, he didn't know that his son, who was worse than pigs and dogs, would indeed rush towards the palace shouting "Old thief, cut into pieces!"

but……

"Why give him this chance?"

A malicious smile appeared on Yang Feng's face.

Then he took off.

In the moonlight, he was like a bat, quietly flying over Luzhou.

Inside the city, Li Sizhao and his soldiers were on high alert, completely unaware that a demon was staring down their noses. The war had only just begun, and they still faced a year of arduous defense. The city's civilians, however, remained calm. Many houses still had lights on, for summer was approaching, and some could even be seen enjoying the cool of the moonlight.

Just a war!

Just surrounded!

What a big deal!

The last thing this city lacks is war.

In fact, Liang Jin has been going back and forth in this city many times over the years, and the frequency of changing owners of this city is not to say that it changes every year, but it can be said that it changes every few days.

The common people are used to it. When there is food, they share it together. If there is no food...

Do you think the people of Zhaoyi don't have enough martial virtue?

Who would want to hang out with you if you don’t have food?

At worst, we can just grab some weapons and drive Li Sizhao out!

In fact, in the later period, Li Sizhao had to distribute military rations to the people in the city in order to prevent them from being driven out. Even so, he was afraid that they would worry about not having enough food, so he deliberately held banquets for them every day to show that there was no shortage of food in his warehouse. Since the An-Shi Rebellion, Luzhou has been the main battlefield for the repeated outbreaks of the Heshuo vassal states. For more than a hundred years, the people have been extremely simple and honest. If you don't treat them well, you can't afford to offend them.

Of course, it's all over now.

Because as Yang Feng pointed the nine-section staff in his hand, the five-hundred-ton steel ball fell with a roar.

"I am the worst evil!"

Yang Feng evaluated himself with mischievous joy.

The next moment, everyone on the city wall raised their heads in astonishment.

Even the Liang army outside the city looked at the sky in astonishment.

A 500-ton steel ball roared through the air like a meteor, but unfortunately, its speed wasn't fast enough to create a meteor, and there was no ionosphere. All they could see was a black dot in the sky, rapidly growing in the moonlight. Then, in a flash, they reached the Luzhou city wall. Before they could recover from their daze, they saw the wall, struck from the inside by the ball, shattered into countless fragments that shot outward.

At the same time, a loud noise like the collapse of heaven and earth shook the earth.

And as the earth trembled, the dust pushed outward like waves.

Even some less sturdy houses in the city collapsed.

The defenders on the city wall were even thrown up and thrown out of the wall due to the violent shaking of the wall.

Countless screams of terror rang out.

Amidst the screams, dust began to dissipate in the wind, and a huge gap more than ten feet wide suddenly appeared on the Luzhou city wall under the moonlight.

There was an instant of silence inside and outside the city walls.

then……

"Fight in!"

A Liang army general outside was the first to react, and he roared like crazy.

Then he urged his horse on without hesitation.

The next moment everyone woke up. Whether it was the Liang army outside the city or the Jin army inside the city, everyone looked at the strange gap and realized what it meant.

"Fight in!"

"The city is broken!"

……

Chaotic shouts rang out simultaneously from inside and outside the city walls.

In the chaos, the general and his personal guards rushed straight across the moat, which had been filled with broken city wall debris, and rushed into the gap still shrouded in dust. Behind him, all the Liang troops were desperately rushing towards the gap. Meanwhile, the Jin troops inside the city were desperately running towards the gap, trying to block it before it. The Liang general who rushed into the gap was shocked to find that he had fallen into a pit. He hurriedly controlled his horse to gallop upwards, but at the same time, the blocking Jin troops also tumbled into the pit in chaos...

Thus began the bloody battle.

(End of this chapter)