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

Chapter 1000: Twelve routes were set up across the country, and the emperor rushed to the capital to inherit the throne

"Order to establish a twelve-route administrative division system throughout the country" (January 1, the 12th year of Chengqian)

"The courtiers. Only Heaven can support virtue, so that they can govern the people. Only the queen can guard the country, so that they can carry on the legacy. The three generations of the past have passed down the traditions. The hundred kings have followed the rules of succession."

"Today, there are 132 states and 563 counties. The more states and counties there are, the fewer officials there are. Therefore, we sincerely increase the divisions to shepherd the people on behalf of God and to ensure the safety of the country and the people."

"···All officials of Daxia, common people, soldiers and civilians, should understand the intention and carry it out carefully without any mistakes. We also need good assistants from the clan and officials from home and abroad to help us with our efforts. The announcement will be made far and wide so that everyone will know."

The imperial edict was announced to all four borders of Daxia, and people from all over the country came to the government notice board to find out which faction they belonged to.

Therefore, the notice to the people has an attachment:

There are twelve roads in the world.

It was called Jingji Road, with its capital in Kaifeng Prefecture; it was called Hebei Road, with its capital in Jibei Prefecture; it was called Jingdong North Road, with its capital in Qingzhou Yidu; it was called Jingdong South Road, with its capital in Suzhou Fuli.

It was called Jingxibei Road, with its capital in Luoyang, Luozhou; it was called Jingxinan Road, with its capital in Xiangyang, Xiangzhou; it was called Jiannan West Road, with its capital in Chengdu Prefecture.

It was called Jiannan East Road, with its seat in Pi County, Zizhou; it was called Shannan Road, with its seat in Nanzheng, Liangzhou; it was called Yuzhou Road, with its seat in Ba County, Yuzhou; it was called Qianzhou Road, with its seat in Pengshui, Qianzhou; it was called Kunzhou Road, with its seat in Yining, Kunzhou.

Most of these twelve routes were directly under the jurisdiction of Daxia, except for Qianzhou Road and Kunzhou Road, which were mostly vassal states of Daxia because they were located in wild areas.

The so-called vassal states are the leaders or chieftains of the local minority barbarian tribes. They openly acknowledge the rule and imperial decrees of Daxia, but in fact they only obey orders and not announcements.

In the vassal states where there were few Han people, the prefect was hereditary by the leader of the largest local tribe. In the vassal states where there were many Han people, the central government would send additional officials to deal with local conflicts between Han and barbarians. A small number of counties within the state were autonomous.

This depends largely on the foundation laid during the Tang Dynasty.

Generally speaking, as long as the three cities of Chengdu, Qianzhou and Kunzhou in the southwest region surrender, it means that most of the vassal states around them will follow suit.

It can be said that these three cities are the biggest leaders in the vast wild areas of the southwest.

While Daxia was carrying out its vigorous road establishment and restructuring campaign, Daxia's powerful enemy, the Later Tang, underwent a major change.

Just at the end of last year, Li Siyuan, the Mingzong of Later Tang, was seriously ill.

The second son, Li Congrong, Prince of Qin, thought that Li Siyuan was dead, but someone in the palace concealed the truth and intended to assassinate him, so he launched a mutiny, but was defeated and killed.

Upon hearing the news, Li Siyuan, who was already dying, vomited blood and died at the age of 67.

The fifth son, Prince of Wei Li Conghou, rushed from Yedu to the capital and succeeded to the throne in front of the coffin.

The 12th year of Xia Chengqian, the first year of Later Tang Yingshun

February
Li Conghou followed the advice of Privy Councilors Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun, and issued an order from the Privy Council to relocate the Jiedushi of Fengxiang, Hedong, Zhaoyi and Tianxiong to consolidate the throne, and sent envoys to supervise the transfer.

Among them, Li Congke, the Prince of Lu who had been expelled from the capital, was transferred from Fengxiang to Hedong.

Shi Jingtang, who was originally stationed in Hedong, was promoted to the position of Zhongshu Ling and transferred to Zhaoyi.

He was suddenly transferred to another garrison without issuing an imperial edict according to the court regulations, which caused great dissatisfaction among the military governors.

However, due to the long distance to Hedong, Zhaoyi and other towns, while these military governors were discussing countermeasures with their subordinates, Prince of Lu Li Congke had already set out on the journey at the urging of Li Conghou.

February 21st

Originally, because of their weak soldiers and little food, although they were dissatisfied, they dared not disobey orders and rebel easily.

However, the imperial envoys urged him to set off as soon as possible, and his subordinates kept encouraging him.

Finally, Li Congke couldn't stand it anymore.

He killed the imperial envoy who was escorting him, and took the opportunity to launch a rebellion in Fengxiang in the name of "clearing the court".

When Li Conghou learned about this, he hurriedly mobilized the six governors, including Wang Sitong, the imperial guard, An Yanwei, the governor of the Protectorate, and Zhang Qianzhao, the governor of the Tianxiong Army, to jointly attack Fengxiang.

He also ordered his son Li Chongji to be imprisoned in Tongzhou.

March
The troops sent by the Chang'an court gathered at the foot of Fengxiang City and launched a massive attack on the city.

Fengxiang City is low and the river is shallow, so the defense force is weak. The East and West Pass cities were lost one after another, and the generals and soldiers in the city suffered heavy casualties.

Li Congke had no choice but to climb up to the top of the city wall, where he described his military exploits and cried about the court's trust in treacherous officials and the killing of meritorious officials without guilt. He cried bitterly and moved the troops, so all the soldiers fought bravely and barely held off another wave of attacks.

Here, Zhang Qianzhao, the governor of Tianxiong Army, was responsible for the main attack on the southwest of the city.

He was greedy for military merit, so he ordered his personal troops to wield swords and force the soldiers to attack the city quickly, regardless of the heavy casualties among his own men.

The soldiers of the Tianxiong Army were extremely angry and turned against their own side and launched a counterattack.

Yang Siquan, commander of the Yulin Army, and Yin Hui, commander of the left wing of the Yanwei Infantry, were former subordinates of Li Congke when he served as the imperial guard generals in Chang'an.

Seeing this, he took the opportunity to lead his troops to surrender to Li Congke. Wang Sitong, Zhang Qianzhao and other six military governors were defeated and fled.

Li Congke took advantage of the victory and marched eastwards, and was about to approach Chang'an City. When the new emperor Li Conghou in the city heard about it, he was panicked and quickly asked Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun to draft a plan to summon Shi Jingtang to the court, hoping that he would lead the army to resist the eastward advance of Fengxiang's army.

The commander-in-chief of the imperial guards, Li Yicheng, planned to surrender to Li Congke and requested to lead the imperial guards in the capital to go to war.

However, Zhu Hongshi, commander of the cavalry, advocated using the imperial guards to defend Luoyang.

The two argued endlessly in the court, each claiming that the other was trying to take advantage of the opportunity to rebel.

Li Conghou was unable to distinguish right from wrong and eventually beheaded Zhu Hongshi.

After deciding on the strategy of the Western Expedition, Li Conghou emptied the treasury to reward the imperial guards lavishly, and promised more generous rewards after the rebellion was quelled.

But because of the previous emperor Li Siyuan, the royal prestige had long disappeared.

As a result, these imperial guards were not grateful for the emperor's kindness, but became even more arrogant.

They acted recklessly during the march and threatened to go to Fengxiang to receive another reward.

March 26
Li Congke conquered Wugong and sent letters to comfort all officials in the capital.

He said that he would only kill the families of Zhu Hongzhao and Feng Yun when he came to Beijing this time, and told them not to worry.

At this time, the imperial guards had just arrived in Xianyang when they gathered in groups of hundreds and rushed to Qizhou.

When Li Yicheng arrived in Xingping, facing the Fengxiang Army, there were only a few dozen people left under his command, so he surrendered to Li Congke.

March 29
Li Congke captured Xianyang.

Seeing that Chang'an could no longer be defended, Li Conghou decided to abandon Chang'an and flee to Ye City in Xiangzhou, where he would plan a comeback.

He ordered Meng Hanqiong to go to Ye City, Xiangzhou first to arrange various matters, and asked his confidant Murong Qian to lead his Konghe Imperial Guards to guard the Xuanwu Gate.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Meng Hanqiong left the city gate, he rode alone to Xianyang and surrendered to Li Congke.

Li Conghou was furious, but helpless. He fled Chang'an from Xuanwu Gate that night, crossed the river from Weinan with fifty guards, and arrived in Tongzhou.

He planned to cross the river eastward from Puzhou, then reach Shanzhou via Zhongtiao Mountain, and then pass through the Henei Corridor to reach Ye City in Xiangzhou, his original fiefdom.

Before leaving, his confidant Murong Qian said that he would immediately lead his troops to accompany him.

But after Li Conghou left the city, he closed the city gate and sent someone to contact Li Congke.

April 3rd
Li Congke led his army into Chang'an. Prime Minister Feng Dao led civil and military officials to persuade him to ascend the throne, but Li Congke pretended to refuse.

The next day, Empress Dowager Cao issued an edict to depose Li Conghou as King of E and appointed Li Congke as regent.

April 6
Empress Dowager Cao issued an edict to enthrone Li Congke as emperor, and then he ascended the throne and changed the era name to "Qingtai".

The 12th year of Xia Chengqian, the first year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty

April 10
When Li Conghou, the deposed emperor of Later Tang, fled to Xiangzhou, he met Shi Jingtang, who had responded to his imperial edict and led his army into the court, near Puzhou city.

When he saw Shi Jingtang, he was overwhelmed with grief. He cried to him about the recent events and asked him for strategies for restoration.

The implication was that he was asking Shi Jingtang to support him in regaining the throne.

You must know that Shi Jingtang had the elite troops of the Later Tang who fought against the Khitans.

In order to prevent the Khitans from moving south, the Later Tang stationed 30,000 elite troops in Hedong Town, making it the real largest town.

After hearing this, Shi Jingtang did not agree to his request immediately, but made an excuse to discuss it with Wang Hongzhi, the governor of Puzhou.

Then he was placed in the post house.

Soon, Shi Jingtang found Wang Hongzhi, but the other party believed that Li Conghou had no hope of revival and warned him to recognize the current situation.

After a night of decision-making, Shi Jingtang ordered the commander of the Ya Nei, Liu Zhiyuan, to lead his troops into the post station and kill all of Li Conghou's entourage and guards, and then led his army to Chang'an to meet the new emperor.

Li Conghou was left alone in the inn, shivering.

Later, he was placed under house arrest in the provincial government by Wang Hongzhi.

April 16

When Shi Jingtang came to the court, Li Congke was very happy that he was the first vassal to come to the court to pay homage to him, so he still appointed Shi Jingtang as the governor of Hedong, the governor of Beijing, and the general manager of the military, Han and cavalry of Datong, Zhenwu, Zhangguo, and Wesai.

He also issued an order to execute Li Conghou.

April 21st

Sent by Li Congke, palace guard Wang Luan, son of Wang Hongzhi, rushed to Puzhou. With the help of his father, Puzhou governor Wang Hongzhi, the father and son murdered Li Conghou. Li Conghou died at the age of 21.

(End of this chapter)