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

Chapter 876: The army marched south to pacify Liu Zhan, and in March moved to siege Qu'a

April of the second year of Shangyuan
The Eastern Commander, Bai Jing, prepared to personally lead an expedition to the south to attack Liu Zhan.

The five military governors (Tian Shengong of Pinglu, Li Li of Yanhai, Wang Zhongsheng of Huaixi, Neng Yuanhao of Zibo and Li Zhongchen of Yicheng) were united.

A total of hundreds of thousands of troops marched southward.

Most of the remaining soldiers, under the command of Henan Deputy Envoy Gao Shi, Military Envoy Yan Gaoqing, Du Fu, Bai Shouchun and others, continued to besiege Bianzhou to guard against the rebels in Luoyang.

At this time, Liu Zhan had already captured the eastern part of Huainan, and the important cities of Jiangnan, Runzhou, Shengzhou, Xuanzhou, Suzhou, and Huzhou had all fallen into his hands.

The effective resistance of Cui Zhao, the governor of Shouzhou, ended in Luzhou.

After several months of development, Liu Zhan now has generals Qu Tuxiaobiao and Wang Geng, 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers and several thousand cavalry, who are invincible in the Jianghuai area. The former Huaixi commander-in-chief Li He was suppressed in Hongzhou and had difficulty defending himself.

Upon learning that Bai Jing was leading his troops south, Liu Zhan immediately gathered strong troops, gave up pursuing Li He southward, and blocked Bai Jing's troops in Huaibei.

Bai Jing appointed Tian Chenggong as the vanguard commander of the army, leading 10,000 men to explore the way ahead.

April

Liu Zhan formed his battle line in Huaibei. When he learned that the Tang army on the opposite side was led by Tian Shengong, a fierce general from Hebei, he felt a little afraid, but he still held his military town in an attempt to block the Tang army north of the Huai River.

On the 20th, Liu Zhan's 30,000 troops lined up in the capital Liangshan.

Tian Shengong climbed up to look at the rebel army formation and saw that Liu Zhan's army formation was not tight except for the thousand or so people in the middle. He knew that these were all newly recruited soldiers.

He felt relieved and immediately went down the mountain with Tian Shenyu, each leading 5,000 men to attack from both sides.

The Tang army had a righteous cause in hand, and the soldiers had experienced many major battles and had fought against the Hebei rebels for many years, so they were elite and difficult to defeat.

Most of the rebels were newly recruited people from Jianghuai. They were good at naval warfare but not good at foot combat. Naturally, they were defeated and many of them surrendered.

Liu Zhan led only 500 cavalrymen to retreat to Tianchang. The Tang army pursued them and the rebels were defeated again.

In the end, he hastily crossed the river with only one cavalryman.

May of the second year of Shangyuan
Bai Jing ordered the various units in the south of the Yangtze River to cooperate with the army and immediately attack the rebel areas to recover the prefectures and counties.

On May 13, Li Zangyong, the deputy governor of Jianghuai, and Wen Chao, the governor of Hangzhou, defeated Zhang Jingchao and Sun Daifeng who were sent by Liu Zhan to attack the city.

At the same time, Deng Jingshan, the governor of Huainan East Road, and Xing Yanen, the military supervisor, and other troops in the western part of Huainan also sent troops to cooperate with the main force to counterattack Liu Zhan.

May 25
Liu Zhan led more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry to form a battle array at Suanshan, and annihilated the 2,000-man detachment of Tian Shengong that had launched a surprise attack on Jinshan from the sea.

However, in Xia Shu, he was defeated by the 8,000 troops of Neng Yuanhao, the governor of Zibo and Qingzhou, who were under the command of Bai Jing.

June 21

Bai Jing led an army of 50,000 troops in Qu'a and surrounded Liu Zhan.

Liu Zhan's brother Liu Yin advised Liu Zhan to lead his troops to escape into the sea to save his life.

Liu Zhan refused and said, "The one leading the troops today is Bai Jing, the young master of the Bai family. The Bai family owns one-third of the large ships in the world. Most of the troops overseas belong to the Bai family. They just fled to the sea and waited for death."

Then he wanted to fight like a trapped beast.

On the 23rd, Bai Jing sent people to persuade the enemy to surrender many times but failed, so he ordered all his troops to attack the city.

Because he had more soldiers than the enemy, Bai Jing attacked the city from all sides.

He ordered Tian Shengong to attack the north city with 2,000 men, Neng Yuanhao to attack the west city with 2,000 men, Bai Jinchuan to attack the east city with 2,000 men, and Wang Zhongsheng to attack the south city with 2,000 men. It was agreed that whoever entered the city first would be rewarded with the first merit in the battle.

Following Bai Jing's order, the horn of attack resounded throughout the small city of Qu'a. Originally a prosperous city in the south of the Yangtze River, it was now filled with a murderous atmosphere.

There were only 5,000 rebels in Qu'a City, with 1,000 on each side, and ultimately only 1,000 mobile troops.

Liu Zhan decided that he must choose a side and counterattack, which was the only way to survive.

After investigation, he decided to personally lead 2,000 people to guard the South City.

It was only because it was Wang Zhongsheng who attacked Nancheng. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have ended up like this.

Because Liu Zhan was determined to fight to the death, he had already declared to the soldiers in the city that the day the city was captured would be the day when the Tang army would massacre the city. So for the sake of their own lives, the Qu'a defenders tried their best to barely stop the Tang army.

When the sun was about to set, Bai Jing ordered the horn to be sounded, preparing for another battle tomorrow. He estimated that Qu'a would be captured tomorrow.

Suddenly, because the war was over, the quiet Qu'a city became noisy again.

Bai Jing hurriedly asked his men to check.

"Report, envoy, Liu Zhan led a thousand men out of the south of the city and engaged in a battle with Envoy Wang."

Bai Jing frowned slightly and said, "Order Li Zhongchen to lead 3,000 men from our army to the south of the city to provide support. We must not allow the rebels to escape."

He stayed where he was, standing on a higher hill outside Qu'a City with generals such as Yuan Baoyi and Tian Shenyu, looking down at the entire Qu'a City, and could vaguely see the layout of the city.

This hill is nameless and is located in the northeast. A large white banner stands on the top of the hill. It is protected by a battalion of one thousand guards led by Bai Ming, the fifth son of Bai Jing, who follows Bai Jing and is also the personal guard battalion.

I saw a group of Tang soldiers rushing towards the south of the city from not far from the east. It was Li Zhongchen (Dong Qin) who had received the order.

He did not charge directly into the battlefield between the rebels and Wang Zhongsheng, but bypassed the battlefield and formed a military formation on the rear wing of Wang Zhongsheng's troops.

While being vigilant against the rebels breaking away from Wang Zhongsheng's troops and fleeing, he also sent a thousand men to support Wang Zhongsheng.

Night finally fell in Qu'a, and both sides had to stop fighting. Liu Zhan led the rebels back to Qu'a City, and Li Zhongchen assisted Wang Zhongsheng in reorganizing the army.

The firewood was crackling as it burned in the raging fire. Because of the darkness, Bai Jing could no longer watch the battle in South City, so he had to move to the main camp and wait quietly for news.

Not only Bai Jing, but all the generals gathered together.

"Thump, thump, thump" was repeated three times, and finally Li Zhongchen, who was given a surname by Li Heng, walked into the general's tent with a gloomy face.

Bai Jing, who was holding a book in his hand and reading it carefully, clasped his fists and said:
"Prime Minister, I have already pushed the rebels back into the city."

"Ah."

Bai Jing nodded slightly. Li Zhongchen sighed, knelt on one knee and said, "I apologize for not rescuing you in time. Envoy Wang was killed by the rebels."

All the generals present were in an uproar. This was the highest loss of a general by the Tang army in the few months since the rebellion was suppressed. He was a military governor, and a military governor of a big town at that.

Everyone looked at Bai Jing, wanting to hear his conclusion, including Cheng Yuanzhen, the military inspector.

Bai Jing stood up after hearing this, his face showing pain, and he sighed with his eyes closed: "What a pity, what a pity, Wang Huaixi actually died on the eve of the light, alas, this is his fate."

"Mr. Li was able to stabilize the southern front and push the rebels back into the city. What crime did he commit? If there is any crime, it should be my fault. I didn't expect that the thief Liu would fight to the death."

"The Prime Minister."

Hearing the generals' call, Bai Jing opened his eyes, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and said:

"No matter what, Liu the bandit must be wiped out. Don't be afraid to act because of Wang Huaixi's matter. As I said before, whoever enters Qu'a first will be the first to achieve the greatest achievement in this battle. I will personally recommend him for the credit."

"As for Wang Huaixi, order him to be made into a coffin and sent to Huaixi for a proper burial. I, the commander, will write this letter to take responsibility for this matter and apologize for my crime."

"I will follow the orders of the Prime Minister."

The next day, under Bai Jing's comfort, the troops did not hesitate to move forward because of Wang Zhongsheng's incident. Instead, they became more courageous than yesterday.

In order to command the Huaixi Army, Bai Jing temporarily promoted Jia Yinlin, the military commander of the Huaixi Army, to be acting deputy commander and temporarily lead the Huaixi Army.

After Jia Yinlin came to power, in order to avenge Wang Zhongsheng and to gain Bai Jing's respect, he removed the title of "deputy" from his head and even became a regular envoy.

Therefore, he led the Huaixi Army to attack very fiercely and even went into battle personally.

So in the afternoon, when the other three city walls had not yet been breached, Jia Yinlin personally braved the arrows and led his personal soldiers to attack the city wall. He shot Liu Zhan's eye with his sharp archery, and Liu Zhan fell to the ground and was beheaded.

Qu'a was thus captured, and Jia Yinlin was recognized by Bai Jing as the first meritorious contributor in this battle.

He wrote a letter to recommend Jia Yinlin as the deputy envoy of Huaixi Jiedushi and governor of Songzhou, just like Liu Zhan before.

In July, Bai Jing dealt with the post-war affairs in Jianghuai and led his troops back north, approaching Bianzhou again.

(End of this chapter)