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

Chapter 875: Liu Zhan's Rebellion: The situation has changed, the king is weak and the ministers are treacherous, things are difficult

October of the first year of Shangyuan
Li Guangbi, the main general of the Tang army, crossed the river and launched a large-scale attack on Huaizhou from Heyang. Shi Siming sent troops to rescue him but was defeated.

After the reinforcements failed, Shi Siming sent troops to attack the three cities of Heyang again to besiege Wei to save Zhao, but was defeated again and had to retreat to Luoyang.

Soon, the rebel Huaizhou garrison commander An Taiqing surrendered.

At the same time, Tian Shengong of the Pinglu Army attacked and defeated the rebels in Zhengzhou. The rebel governor of Huazhou, Linghu Zhang, also escaped and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. The 30,000 rebels in Bianzhou were cut off from the Luoyang army.

Shi Siming's situation became increasingly embarrassing.

Just when Shi Siming was feeling increasingly pessimistic about the situation, Liu Zhan, deputy governor of Huaixi Jiedushi of the Tang Dynasty, rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and led 7,000 Songzhou soldiers to cause chaos in Jianghuai.

The morale of the Shandong, Jianghuai and other troops besieging Bianzhou was shaken. They were afraid that Liu Zhan would attack their own prefectures and military towns, and even considered withdrawing.

Baixiang outside Qingzhou City is the manor of the Bai family of Renyitang.

Bai Jing looked at the secret letter in his hand, his face turning pale.

"Stupid, very stupid."

This secret letter was sent by the family's spy in Jianghuai, recording the reasons behind Liu Zhan's rebellion.

Liu Zhan was originally a military officer of Chenliu and a colleague of Tian Shengong. When An Lushan went south, he participated in suppressing the rebellion and became powerful. He was appointed as the governor of Ruzhou on trial. The next year, he was actually appointed as the governor of Huazhou. In May, he was transferred to the governor of Songzhou and served as the deputy envoy of Huaixi Jiedushi.

He was a man of great prestige and reputation, and he controlled his troops in a strict manner, but he was not tolerated by his superior, Wang Zhongsheng, the governor of Huaixi.

The Huaixi Army had two deputy envoys, Li Xian and Liu Zhan. The former was "corrupt, violent and lawless", and the latter was "strong and self-righteous". Therefore, Wang Zhongsheng wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible and lead the Huaixi Army alone, as if he wanted to split Huaixi.

Then Wang Zhongsheng colluded with the eunuch Xing Yanen, the military supervisor of the Huaixi Army, and spent a large sum of money to bribe him.

Xing Yanen then reported to the court that "Liu Zhan has the intention of rebellion, please eliminate him."

He also instigated Li Heng, saying: In view of the fact that Liu Zhan holds a large number of troops, it is suggested that he be ordered to be transferred to the post of Commander-in-Chief of Jianghuai, and then assassinated on his way to the post.

Li Heng believed it to be true and appointed Liu Zhan as the governor of three regions: East Huainan, West Jiangnan, and West Zhejiang.

On the other hand, he secretly ordered Li He, the former governor of Jianghuai, and Deng Jingshan, the governor of Huainan East Road, to wait for an opportunity to get rid of Liu Zhan.

As a result, after Liu Zhan received the imperial edict appointing him as the Governor of Jianghuai, he felt very suspicious that he had neither made any significant contributions nor was he a relative of the nobles nor a virtuous person, yet he was entrusted with the important task of controlling the country's financial lifeline.

He then took his 7,000 Songzhou soldiers with him to take office, and at the same time gathered his relatives and friends in Jianghuai around him.

As Liu Zhan expected, Li He, the former commander-in-chief of Jianghuai, refused to obey orders on the grounds that it was a secret decree, and the two armies then fought a fierce battle near Xucheng County.

Li He was defeated and fled south to Guangling with the remaining troops, where he joined forces with Deng Jingshan and declared Liu Zhan a rebel.

Xing Yan'en also decided to go all out and, in his capacity as military supervisor, declared that Liu Zhan was a rebel.

When Liu Zhan learned about this, he was furious and also issued an edict to the prefectures and counties, declaring that Li He was in rebellion. He then launched a large-scale attack on Huainan and pursued Li He's troops.

He personally led the army to attack Guangling, and sent his general Qu Tu Xiaobiao to lead 3,000 troops to attack Haozhou and Chuzhou.

Another general, Wang Geng, led 4,000 troops to attack Huaixi.

He then crossed the river using a feint to the east and attacked in the west, occupying the important towns of Runzhou and Shengzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, forcing Li He to flee to Xuanzhou.

Although they did not openly rebel against the imperial court, they had already clearly established their own separatist regime.

As a result, the financial resources of Jianghuai were directly cut off because of Liu Zhan alone, and the morale of the Jianghuai troops in Bianzhou was also shaken.

Bai Jing was indeed feeling tired at this time. He had worked so hard to unite forces from all over the place and get them to join forces to attack the rebels.

As a result, the imperial court brought its own destruction upon itself and forced a key general to rebel.

The situation has finally improved, and now Shi Siming must seize the opportunity. Sure enough, when Shi Siming heard about the chaos in Huainan and the unrest in Jianghuai, his laughter resounded throughout the Luoyang Palace.

The next day, he ordered a large-scale attack taking advantage of the situation, and sent Tian Chengsi with 5,000 soldiers to plunder the states in Huaixi, Xue E with 5,000 soldiers to attack Caozhou, Wang Tongzhi with 3,000 soldiers to attack Chenzhou, and Xu Jingguang with 2,000 soldiers to attack Yanzhou and Yunzhou.

It is imperative to eliminate the Tang troops in various towns in Guandong.

Helplessly, Bai Jing had to respond to the rebels' actions.

He ordered the Zibo-Qing Jiedushi Neng Yuanhao to lead 3,000 troops to guard Caozhou, and the Huaixi Jiedushi Wang Zhongsheng to lead 10,000 troops to guard Huaixi to prevent Tian Chengsi's looting.

Dong Qin, who changed his name to Li Zhongchen, led 2,000 soldiers to defend Chenzhou.

Li Wei, the governor of Yanhai, led 5,000 men to guard Yan and Yun states.

Pinglu Jiedushi Tian Shengong still led the Pinglu army to besiege Bianzhou.

Bai Shouchun, the commander of the Qingzhou militia, was sent to Zibo Prefecture to guard against any unexpected events.

Under Bai Jing's strict defense, the various armies in Guandong performed their duties and finally repelled the rebels' massive counterattack.

February of the second year of Shangyuan
After three months of counterattack, the rebels were finally repelled by Bai Jing, and all the rebel forces returned empty-handed.

Just when Bai Jing breathed a sigh of relief and was about to deal with Liu Zhan in Huainan, a piece of news from Luoyang almost made Bai Jing, who rarely got angry, lose his mind in anger.

"Yu Chaoen, the military envoy, believed the rumors and thought that the rebels were homesick and that a battle would be enough to win the battle, so he kept urging Tang Li Heng to send troops."

"Li Heng believed it to be true and urged Li Guangbi and others to immediately recapture Dongjing Luoyang."

"Li Guangbi tried his best to persuade the rebels that their morale was still high and they should not act rashly."

"However, the Zuo Wufengshi of the Shuofang Army under Li Guangbi was dissatisfied with Li Guangbi taking over Guo Ziyi's position. He had a long-standing grudge against Li Guangbi and actually agreed with Yu Chaoen's opinion."

"Li Guangbi had no choice but to leave Li Baoyu to guard Heyang, while he and Pugu Huai'en led the army to join Yu Chao'en and Wei Boyu, the commander of the Shen Ce Army, and jointly attacked Luoyang."

"In the end, they were schemed by Shi Siming, and the Tang army was defeated, with thousands of people killed and a large amount of military supplies and equipment lost."

"Li Guangbi and Pugu Huai'en crossed the river and retreated to Wenxi, Yu Chao'en and Wei Boyu withdrew to Shanzhou, and Li Baoyu also abandoned the three cities of Heyang, and the rebels recaptured Huaizhou."

"The imperial court was horrified and mobilized a large number of troops to garrison Shanzhou. They also ordered Bai Jing and his troops to quickly deal with the rebels in Bianzhou and lead the army eastward to force Luoyang to relieve the pressure on Shanzhou."

With the comfort of Bai Ming, Bai Wen and others, Bai Jing finally calmed down, but he became more dissatisfied with Li Heng.

However, since it was decided to wipe out the rebels as soon as possible, Bai Jing had to make plans for the court.

He wrote a letter to the emperor on the same day, saying that the situation in Luoyang had become so bad that it could not be resolved in a short time. He requested that Liu Zhan's rebellion be resolved first, and then Bianzhou could be captured and Luoyang could be threatened.

It is not known whether he believed in Bai Jing or felt guilty, but Li Heng finally agreed to Bai Jing's suggestion and appointed Bai Jing as Shangshu Zuo Pushe, Pingzhangshi, Jiedushi of Henan, Inspector of Qingzi, Xuyang and seven other states, Deputy Marshal of the Army, and additionally granted him the titles of Situ, Taizi Taishi, and Duke of Lu.

Together with Deputy Marshal Li Guangbi, they were responsible for suppressing the rebellion, one in the east and the other in the west.

Cheng Yuanzhen was also sent to serve as the military inspector, a position equivalent to Yu Chaoen.

However, Bai Jing was different from Li Guangbi, and Cheng Yuanzhen naturally did not have as much power as Yu Chaoen. After arriving in Yanzhou, he became mute.

That’s right, in order to handle the affairs of Guandong faster and better, Bai Jing has moved from Qingzhou to Yanzhou, getting closer to the front line.

As the saying goes, things are unpredictable. Originally, Bai Jing just wanted to finish the task assigned by Bai Qing of cleaning up the corpses of the Henan clan members, and after inspecting the situation of the Shandong clan members, he would return to Songxi, gradually take over Bai Qing's responsibilities, and take charge of the family.

However, he did not expect that, because he could not stand the countless bones along the way and the tragic experiences of the people, he fell deeper and deeper into the trap, and step by step became the commander-in-chief of the eastern part of the Tang Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)