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

Chapter 1029: Hunan is in chaos and falls apart; Drinking from the Yangtze River, conquering Jingchu

The eighth year of the Great Xiapingning
There was a dramatic change in Hunan, and the former King of Chu, Ma Xi'e, lowered his title and became king under the protection of Southern Tang.

However, Ma Xi'e had no ability to govern the country, and entrusted all military and political affairs to his younger brother Ma Xichong.

After ascending the throne, he was full of ambition and ambition, and he killed people for revenge, indulged in drinking and debauchery.

However, Ma Xichong was only concerned with protecting himself and left state affairs to his subordinates, which led to political chaos in the State of Chu and a change of military morale.

Seeing the country's downward spiral, under the planning of generals such as Xu Wei, the commander of the Imperial Guard, a coup was launched in the sixth year of Pingning, overthrowing the rule of Ma Xi'e and supporting Ma Xichong to succeed to the throne.

All in all, Ma Xi'e was the King of Chu for only eight or nine months before he was imprisoned in Hengshan County.

Just when the people of Chu thought that things would change after Ma Xichong came to power, they discovered that Ma Xichong was just like his brother, who ascended to the throne suddenly, indulged in alcohol and debauchery, and was a mediocre person.

So just two years later, with Ma Xichong's prior knowledge, generals including Xu Wei mutinied again and imprisoned Ma Xichong in the palace.

However, this move completely tore apart the already turbulent situation in the State of Chu.

Within a few months, more than ten separatist forces of varying sizes emerged in the State of Chu.

Not to mention that the nearest Southern Tang responded quickly, sending a large number of troops to the border, watching with eager eyes.

Under such internal and external troubles, Xu Wei and others prepared to kill Ma Xichong and rely on Daxia in order to save themselves.

Fortunately, this time Ma Xichong had noticed it in advance, so he secretly welcomed the Southern Tang army to seek protection.

May 8
The Southern Tang general Bian Hao led his troops into Hunan, and Ma Xichong surrendered with his entire family. Hunan was easily annexed by the Southern Tang.

After the fall of Changsha Prefecture, Wang Kui, Zhou Xingfeng and other Chu generals who had been on the sidelines first occupied Langzhou and supported Ma Guanghui, the son of Ma Xizhen, the eldest son of Ma Yin, as the Jiedushi of Wu'an Army.

The Chu generals Liao Yan, Liao Kuangning, Peng Shihao and others who escaped from Changsha rushed to Hengshan County and supported Ma Xi'e, who was imprisoned there, as the King of Hengshan.

The Chu State, which had dominated the world with its natural barrier of the lake, fell apart.

The core area of ​​Changsha east of Dongting Lake was occupied by the Southern Tang.

Langzhou in the west was occupied by Zhou Xingfeng.

The Hengzhou area south of Changsha was under the name of the former king Ma Xi'e.

The Gui and Rong regions further south lack the prerequisites for hegemony because of their sparse population.

Therefore, under the leadership of the local Jiedushi, they maintained a neutral attitude and watched the situation in the north.

June 13

Although Daxia reacted slower than Southern Tang due to the distance, it still reacted.

He Zeyu, the governor of Jiangling in the Great Xia Dynasty, received an insider report from Cheng Dagong, a general under Xu Wei who had escaped from Changsha. On the one hand, he submitted a memorial to the imperial court, and on the other hand, he resolutely crossed the Yangtze River with a thousand soldiers and crossed the important town of Gong'an County on the south bank of the Yangtze River in the State of Chu at night.

The Chu army was already at a loss because its capital was occupied by the Southern Tang, so it had no chance of resistance and surrendered to the Xia army.

June 19

Before He Zeyu received any reward from the court, he had already captured the two cities of Yanyang and Anxiang in the south of the Yangtze River with only 5,000 soldiers and horses, and occupied the northwest region of Dongting Lake.

It faces the Southern Tang army across the lake to the east of Dongting Lake.

At the same time, the Jiangling Navy under the Jiangling Prefecture and the Southern Tang Navy began to fight fiercely in Dongting Lake day after day, causing casualties on both sides.

However, despite this, Daxia and Southern Tang never put in their full strength and only engaged in local confrontation.

Neither the ruler and his ministers of Daxia nor the ruler and his ministers of Southern Tang had made up their minds yet.

As a result, the Xia and Tang countries, which had divided the river and lived in peace for more than a decade, began to become tense, as if a war was about to break out.

The two countries also continued to deploy troops to the border. However, in just half a year, both sides had stationed more than 500,000 troops, causing the military friction on the border between the two countries to intensify and become more intense.

There were even large-scale naval battles involving thousands of people constantly taking place on the waters bordering the two countries, with both sides losing dozens of warships every month.

However, the Southern Tang navy had always dominated the Yangtze River. Without Daxia using new warships, the Daxia navy was often defeated by the Jiangling navy and the Dengzhou navy, and was unfortunately at an absolute disadvantage.
Relying on political offensives, Southern Tang once again subdued Ma Xi'e and took over all the Chu territories south of Dongting Lake.

The Xia Kingdom relied solely on the Tusi soldiers in Qian to seize Chenzhou and other places in Qiandong that had been lost by force, and once again brought the Tujia tribes under the rule of the Xia Kingdom.

He also appointed Peng Shihao, the son of the former Tujia leader Peng Shichou, as the governor of Xizhou, the commander of Huixi, and the sixth-rank chieftain, in charge of a number of small Tujia chieftains.

More than twenty states where the Tujia tribes lived thus returned to Xia from Chu.

In view of the advantages of the Southern Tang army's navy and the fact that Daxia's new warships had not yet been fully trained, Daxia delayed launching an offensive to annihilate the country for two years.

But the situation is stronger than people, and many things are beyond people's control.

August

Ma Xi'e, who was originally appointed as the Inspector of the Western Jiangnan Road by the Southern Tang Dynasty and still held the title of King of Chu, but was placed under house arrest in Jinling, died.

Liu Yan, a former general of Ma Yin, took the opportunity to raise an army, defeated the Southern Tang garrison in Changsha, and continued to occupy Hunan.

The military forces of Southern Tang were thus driven to the Yuezhou front line.

This means that Yuezhou is the only place left for Daxia to go south to Hunan. In other words, whoever controls Yuezhou can control Dongting Lake and can control Hunan.

September
Liang Yu, the commander-in-chief of the Xia Dynasty's Yanzhou camp and the deputy governor of Jiangling Military Governor's Office, was appointed as the 'commander-in-chief of the front army of the Hunan Road camp'.

Ling Jie, the commander-in-chief of Jiangling Military Governor's Office, and Xue Junxi, the commander-in-chief of the left wing of Fengjie Infantry, were appointed as "deputy capital commanders".

Li Chuyun, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, was appointed as the "chief supervisor".

Liang Yu led 10,000 infantry and cavalry and passed through Langzhou in the name of helping Hunan to fight against Liu Yan.

Zhou Xingfeng of Langzhou knew very well that the Xia army's request to pass through the city was fake and their real intention was to attack Langzhou and then occupy Hunan.

So he ordered Commander Zhang Congfu to lead troops to intercept them, and at the same time sent envoys to request the Tang army to guard the mouth of Dongting Lake at all costs.

September 25
Under the arrangement of He Zeyu, the commander of the Hunan Road Camp of the Xia Army, a team of Xia Army held back the Tang Army of Yuezhou in Huarong.

Liang Yu's troops launched a fierce attack on Aoshan Stronghold in Langzhou.

However, Liu Yan's troops in Changsha Prefecture remained indifferent to the Xia army's military operations against Langzhou and Yuezhou.

He even refused to allow the Tang army in Jiangxi to pass through Changsha. Fortunately, Liu Yan knew that it would not be good for him if the Xia army entered Hunan, so he withdrew his troops and returned to Changsha.

The main force of the Tang army was pinned down by the Xia army in Huaibei and could not move.

So, under internal and external pressure, the Xia army mobilized almost all the old warships of the Jiangling Navy and the Kuizhou Navy, advanced both by land and sea, broke through the Sanjiangkou, seized 700 warships of the Tang and Chu armies stationed in Dongting Lake, and then occupied Yuezhou.

October rd
Xia warships entered Dongting Lake, Xia troops landed in Chenyang, and Langzhou was caught in a pincer attack.

October
Langzhou fell and Zhou Xingfeng was captured.

Without his boss, Zhang Congfu, who had been defending Aoshan Village, could no longer resist and had to surrender.

The Xia army's troops in Hubei then advanced massively to the south of Dongting Lake.

October 13

Xia's army attacked from two directions at the same time. Liang Yu's troops from Langzhou and He Zeyu's troops from Yuezhou, totaling 30,000 troops, would attack Changsha.

There are also densely packed Xia army warships cruising on Dongting Lake.

Liu Yan saw no hope and surrendered the city.

November

The entire Hunan region was incorporated into the territory of Xia’s army.

The military governors of Jingjiang Army in Guizhou and Ningyuan Army in Rongzhou, which were originally in charge of Guizhou, also submitted letters of surrender to the court and were appointed by Bai Xi as the governor of Guizhou and Rongzhou, both of which were in the Central Governor's District.

(End of this chapter)