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

Chapter 881: Paying back debts to pacify Henan, the eight-year chaos ends and waves rise again
December of the first year of Baoying

In order to raise sufficient military funds to continue the Northern Expedition, the imperial court ordered the collection of eight years of arrears in rent and taxes in the Jianghuai region, and sent powerful officials as county magistrates to plunder grain and silk from the people.

Counties in Jianghuai were in turmoil, and peasants rebelled one after another. Yuan Chao of Taizhou was the most powerful among them. He gathered a force of more than 200,000 people, destroyed states and counties, and successively conquered Xin, Wen, Ming and other states with a huge momentum.

The provincial governors and county magistrates of various prefectures in Jianghuai wrote to the imperial court one after another, requesting the dispatch of troops to suppress the rebellion and to exempt the arrears of rent, for fear that the situation would deteriorate.

However, Li Yu was extremely angry about the rebellion in Jianghuai.

It was as if the docile cattle and sheep that had been raised for many years suddenly bit their owners.

"You are so bold, you are a bunch of unruly people. It is only natural to pay back debts. Those who owe me money and refuse to pay it back, and even rebel, should be killed."

"Come here, tell Bai Jing to send troops to suppress the rebellion immediately. Suppress the rebellion for me, and don't reduce the tax by a grain of rice."

"Where's Cheng Yuanzhen? Tell him to come over here and go to Jianghuai immediately. Take good care of Jianghuai for me."

The eunuchs standing by felt Li Yu's anger and dared not speak.

If he was just a puppet in Li Fuguo's hands a few days ago, it wouldn't be like this.

The reason why he is so powerful now is that two months ago, Li Yu was angry at Li Fuguo's arrogance and overstepping of authority, so he sent people disguised as thieves to assassinate him when he was not prepared. Then he pretended to order a hunt for the thieves and sent envoys to comfort his family to regain some power.

"Your Majesty, Bai has sent someone to write a letter to request retirement."

Upon hearing this, Li Yu looked at Cheng Yuanzhen and asked unkindly, "What does he mean by this?"

Cheng Yuanzhen smiled bitterly and said:

"When the late emperor was alive, Prime Minister Bai intended to retire, but due to the critical situation, he had to take charge of Henan's affairs. Now that the matter is over and the rebels have retreated to Hebei, it is understandable that he wrote a letter to retire."

"So do you think we should agree?"

"Your Majesty, I think we can agree to it, but not so easily. The Bai family has a very high prestige in Henan, Shandong and other places. If they think that the court despises Bai Jing, the two places may become unstable and disasters may arise again."

Li Yu thought about it for a while and came up with an idea:

"Issue an order to allow Bai Jing to retire, but grant him the title of Grand Master and allow him to return home. Considering his achievements, promote his son Bai Xin to be the governor of Henan, the inspector and transport commissioner of Bian, Song, Xu and other eight states, and confer him the title of Duke of Dingtao County."

"His son Bai Ming was appointed as the deputy governor of Henan, the governor of Bianhua, the governor of Huazhou, and was granted the title of Duke of Puyang."

"Your Majesty has really thought it through. I think the Prime Minister Bai will burst into tears when he knows this." Cheng Yuanzhen flattered him at the right time and then said:
"What about Jiang Huai?"

"Wasn't it Bai Jing who recommended Jianghuai Commander Gao Shi? Let him lead the troops south to quell the rebellion."

"Your Majesty is holy."

March of the second year of Baoying
The Tang army, led by Pugu Huai'en and Li Guangbi, launched a massive northern expedition.

The rebels in Hebei believed that Shi Chaoyi's situation was hopeless and surrendered to the court one after another.

Pu Gu Huai'en thought it should be accepted, although he suggested to Li Yu that some of the former Anshi generals be assigned to guard Hebei.

On the one hand, they were transferred away from Hebei and could not gather strength. On the other hand, although they were all rebel generals, they were veterans of the battlefield and were originally Tang generals. They were capable of guarding the northwest for the court and defending against attacks from northwestern ethnic minorities such as Tubo.

Li Yu agreed to his suggestion and sent envoys to various parts of Hebei to recruit rebel generals who were willing to surrender.

On March 21, Xue Song, the defender of Xiangzhou of the Pseudo-Yan State, surrendered Xiangzhou to the imperial court. Shi Chaoyi could only continue to flee north with his remaining troops.

On March 23, Zhang Zhongzhi, the governor of Hengzhou of the pseudo-Yan state, led the five states of Zhao, Ding, Shen, Heng and Yi to surrender.

In addition, the Tang army conquered Weizhou, and Shi Chaoyi had no place to stand in Hebei. So he prepared to go north to the Xi and Khitan to seek a way out and reinforcements.

As a result, on his way north, he was captured by Li Huaixian, the prefect of Fanyang Prefecture of the Pseudo-Yan, who was plotting to return to the Tang Dynasty, and forced to commit suicide.

On March 30th, Shi Chaoyi's head arrived in the capital. Li Yu brought his head to the Taimiao and informed his ancestors.

At this point, the Anshi Rebellion, which lasted for eight years, was put down.

At the same time, Gao Shi, the commander-in-chief of Jianghuai, who was sent by the court, led 8,000 troops under his command to cross the Yangtze River to prepare to quell the rebellion.

Because the imperial edict only allowed Gao Shi to go south to quell the rebellion and did not give him the right to mobilize the towns in northern Jiangsu, the towns of Huainan, Huaixi and others did not send out a single soldier.

In the words of Li Guangshou, the governor of Huainan Army:
"Who is Gao Shi? When I was fighting on the battlefield, he was still a little boy. If you want me to send troops, you must have the last name Bai."

With 8,000 brothers from his headquarters, Gao Shi set foot on the land of Jiangnan.

Looking at Runzhou shrouded in mist and rain, Gao Shi felt that it would be difficult to suppress the rebellion this time.

In the past, when he led troops to quell the Yongwang Rebellion, it was Li Heng who supported him, and when he attacked Bianzhou and Luoyang, it was Bai Jing who helped him behind the scenes.

Now he has crossed the river and is heading south, with no relatives around, and only has a letter that Bai Jing gave him before he left.

"Gao is thirty-five. A few years ago, Li Taibai died of illness in Jiangxia. Of his good friends from that time, only you, me, and Du Zimei are still alive. Zimei is not suitable for officialdom, so I recommended him to the Jiedushi of Jiannan and appointed him as the governor of Shuzhou."

"You are going to the south to quell the rebellion this time. The situation is very complicated. I have a letter here. If you have any difficulties, you can give it to the Su Shang Guild Hall and someone will help you."

Touching the letter in his arms, he thought that in this bleak Tang Dynasty, only he could bring him a touch of tenderness.

"Sir, the Runzhou government refused to provide us with military pay and asked us to camp fifteen miles outside the city. Please do not disturb the people, otherwise we will report us to the court."

Not long after, his subordinates who went to Runzhou to ask for military rations told him bad news.

Gao Shi sighed and said:

"Ask Li Guangshou in Jiangbei to transfer more food and fodder, and tell him that suppressing the rebellion is a major matter for the imperial court, and he should not lose sight of the big picture because of a small one, thereby damaging the reputation of the envoy and causing the world to think that the envoy is not good at employing people."

"Yes."

"Since the people of Runzhou do not welcome us, we should follow their advice and set up camp fifteen miles west of Runzhou."

"Pass the order down, enforce strict military discipline, and do not harass the civilians, otherwise military law will be ruthless."

Under Gao Shi's command, the 8,000 Jianghuai troops slowly moved westward and set up camp in the west.

After just a few days, Gao Shi felt the malice of Jiangnan. Everyone was on guard against him as if he were a thief. Whenever his soldiers arrived at a county town, the county town would hastily close the city gates as if he were a rebel.

He mobilized the militia commanders, defense commanders, guarding commanders, and river defense commanders from all the towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and ordered them to immediately follow the court's orders and wait to join him.

As a result, this group of people either said that the thieves were outside the city, or that the roads and bridges were washed away by rain. Seven days passed and no one was seen.

Fortunately, Li Guangshou in Jiangbei still had some shame and ordered people to send him three months' worth of military rations, otherwise he would have starved to death before he could even accomplish his mission.

As for why they didn't send out troops to quell the rebellion on their own, over the past few months, the peasant army in the south had grown to more than 200,000 people and had captured six or seven counties.

Although these people were all farmers before, and were different from the 8,000 professional soldiers in his headquarters, and a motley crowd, there were still more than 200,000 of them. They were like ants eating elephants, and killing people alone would tire him to death.

(End of this chapter)