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

Chapter 912: The Eastern Expedition to Punish Pang Zhu's Army, Escapes and Refuses to Retreat
The first month of the tenth year of Xiantong

As the troops mobilized by the imperial court arrived in Songzhou one after another, Kang Chengxun, the commander of the Tang army responsible for the expedition against Pang Xun, finally announced his oath to go to war.

The twenty-first day of the first lunar month

The expeditionary army of more than 70,000 soldiers advanced from Songzhou and occupied the west of Liuzi Town, setting up camps for thirty miles from Xinxing to Lutang. The original defense line was entirely guarded by the Xuanwu Army, so there was no need to worry.

This is why Kang Chengxun treated Bai Yi with such courtesy before, and even went so far as to kill the general who broke the law before going to war.

His purpose was to request the Xuanwu Army to guard his rear and transport food and fodder for the army.

After all, the Xuanwu Army did not receive any transfer order from the imperial court, and the expedition to Xuzhou had nothing to do with the Xuanwu Army at all.

However, the Xuanwu Army was stationed in Bianzhou and Songzhou, and Songzhou was close to Xuzhou, so there was a lot to say about the story behind this.

Making friends with them would not only allow Kang Chengxun to draw more troops from the rear defense line to the front battlefield, but also eliminate the need to worry about the rebels attacking from behind.

On the contrary, if we offend them, they will find excuses to cut off the army's food supply at a critical moment, and it is possible that the expeditionary army will be completely wiped out.

January 22
When Pang Xun received the news that the imperial army was dispatched, he was extremely anxious, because the failure of the previous two imperial armies made him think that the imperial court's strength was just so-so at this stage.

Therefore, all the troops were mobilized to capture cities and territories, hoping to seize more territory while the imperial court was not able to react.

Therefore, there were only a few thousand people left in Xuzhou at this time. The situation was urgent, so the rebel forces from all directions were quickly dispatched to guard the Xuzhou base camp.

February
Kang Chengxun ordered Zhuye Chixin to lead 3,000 Shatuo cavalry as the vanguard to charge into battle.

The Shatuo cavalry were experienced in the battlefield, brave and good at fighting, and repeatedly defeated the rebel army. Their military power gradually pushed towards the city of Xuzhou.

Here, the rebel general Wang Hongli returned from Huaikou to defend Xuzhou. Pang Xun immediately ordered him to cross the Suishui River to attack Lutou Village. Taking advantage of the fact that the vanguard of the imperial army was not yet firmly established, he led 30,000 troops to fight against the imperial army in order to get a chance.

After receiving the order, Wang Hongli attacked day and night, hid at the edge of the village, surrounded the village, and prepared to attack the city tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Xie Chixin in the stronghold looked at the rebel army's formation and thought that the enemy's ranks were not in line and had just arrived after a long raid, so they could be attacked.

So he summoned the Shatuo cavalry in the stronghold, opened the gate and galloped across the stronghold, breaking up the rebel army's formation.

When the government troops in the stronghold saw that the enemy's formation had been broken up, they knew that great success was at hand, so they rushed to lead the troops to attack.

Wang Hongli was defeated and retreated.

The government troops chased the rebels to the Sui River. The rebels were unable to advance or retreat, and countless people drowned, resulting in the loss of more than 20,000 people.

In order to dredge the canal as soon as possible, the imperial court had issued an edict ordering the government troops in various regions to release all captured peasant soldiers in order to divide and disintegrate the rebel army.

Therefore, many rebel armies would collapse first when they encountered government troops.

March
After Kang Chengxun defeated Wang Hongli, he advanced towards Liuzi Town and fought dozens of battles with the rebel army led by Yao Zhou in a month.

In the end, they designed a plan to lure Yao Zhou to cross the river and attacked him halfway across. The rebel army retreated and the government troops pursued them. Zhou crossed the river and went around the village to Suzhou, where he was killed by Liang Pi, the Suzhou defender and his old enemy.

The government troops finally captured Liuzi Town, the first important place leading to Xuzhou City.

When Pang Xun heard that General Yao Zhou was defeated, he was shocked and angry, and wanted to lead the army into the battle himself. However, he was dissuaded by his advisers. So he listened to their opinions, created a high-ranking title, called himself General Tiance, selected 30,000 men, and gathered more than 10,000 volunteers from other tribes. He entered Fengxian County in the north at night and attacked the Wei Bo army in the north.

The Wei Bo Army was a detachment of the government army, with only a few thousand men. At the time, it was besieging Feng County and was unaware that the main force of Pang's army had arrived. It was defeated and suffered the loss of more than 2,000 men.

When the government troops besieging the nearby county heard that Pang Xun had arrived in person, they were afraid of his large force and retreated that night.

Pang's army destroyed the city walls, transported their supplies, and restored their strength.

Morale was boosted again, and Pang Xun took advantage of the victory in Fengxian County and led 50,000 to 60,000 troops to the west to attack Kang Chengxun.

However, Kang Chengxun prepared his horses and organized his troops, and secretly set up an ambush.

The front part of Pang's army was ambushed and defeated, and the rear part was scattered and collapsed without a fight.

Zhu Ye Chi Xin took advantage of the situation and ordered his cavalry to charge. Pang's army was routed and Pang Xun fled to Pengcheng with only a few thousand men, while tens of thousands of the rebels died.
Ma Ju, the newly appointed commander of the Xuzhou Southern Camp, led 30,000 elite troops to rescue Sizhou and defeated the rebel Wang Hongli's troops, killing Wang Hongli.

He then led the people of Sizhou and marched south to attack Haozhou, eliminating the rebel forces around Xuzhou.

Afterwards, the imperial court sent an edict to Qin Kuangmou, the governor of Qianzhong, and Song Wei, the general of the Divine Strategy, to lead troops to participate in the encirclement and suppression of the rebel army.

Song Wei was appointed as the envoy to the northwest of Xuzhou, and he stationed 30,000 troops between Fengxian and Xiaoxian. He met with the troops of Cao Xiang, the governor of Yanhai, and jointly approached Xuzhou.

July
Kang Chengxun conquered Linhuan, and Cao Xiang occupied Teng County.

As the government troops approached step by step, the contradictions within the rebel army became increasingly exposed.

Some of the rebels defected, retreated to the mountains and forests, built strongholds and became bandits. The local tyrants killed the defending generals and surrendered the city to the imperial court.

Therefore, Kang Chengxun took advantage of the victory, captured Dicheng, advanced to the west of Suzhou, built a city and besieged Suzhou.

September
As the siege by government troops lasted longer, resentment began to develop among the rebel generals in Suzhou City.

The rebel general Zhang Xuanren was originally a government soldier and a former general in Xuzhou. Naturally, he wanted to surrender, so he sent his confidant to sneak out of the city at night and deliver a letter of surrender to Kang Chengxun.

It was agreed that the general would be killed and the whole city would surrender.

September
Zhang Xuanren led his troops to attack and kill the commander of Xuzhou, Zhang Ru, and opened the city to surrender, and Suzhou fell.

Then Zhang Xuanren suggested to Kang Chengxun that he should burn himself in Suzhou to pretend that the city had fallen and the army had been routed, so as to seize Fuli by fraud.

The next day, Zhang Xuanren killed the Fuli garrison commander and collected 10,000 soldiers.

On the seventh day, government troops arrived at the city of Xuzhou and surrounded it without attacking.

The spies hidden in the city got the news, opened the city gate and led the soldiers into the city.

At this time Pang Xun was not in Pengcheng. Only the counselor Xu Ji and the general Pang Juzhi were in the city.

Upon learning that government troops had entered the city, the two men retreated to the inner city and broke out from the north gate that night. Zhang Xuanren sent troops to pursue and kill them, and both of them died.

Kang Chengxun searched everyone in the city and finally found out the whereabouts of Pang Xun.

It turned out that Pang Xun knew that Xuzhou could not be defended for long, so he personally led 10,000 elite soldiers to quietly bypass the direction of the government army's attack, and went the other way, attacking Songzhou in the west in an attempt to cut off the government army's retreat.

After Kang Chengxun inquired, he immediately ordered Zhu Ye Chixin to lead thousands of cavalry to the west to rescue Songzhou.

When Zhuxie Chixin arrived outside Songzhou City, he saw a mess outside the city.

After asking the generals of the Xuanwu Army guarding the city, he learned that Pang Xun led his troops to attack, but was repelled by the Xuanwu Army stationed in the city. He then crossed the Bian River to the south and attacked Bozhou.

As there were few horses in the city, they did not pursue.

Zhu Ye thanked the defending commander wholeheartedly, and without stopping, he immediately mobilized his troops to march south.

ninth day of september
Zhuxie Chixin followed Pang Xun's troops to Bozhou.

Pang Xun learned that a large number of government cavalry were approaching from the rear, so in order to avoid the attack, he ordered his troops to move eastward along the Huan River and return to Xuzhou.

However, the Shatuo cavalry attacked urgently, and Pang Xun was chased by the cavalry without a break. He traveled all the way to the west of Qi County. At this time, out of the thousands of elite soldiers, only about a thousand were left with him.

They were just about to cross the Huan River here to escape the pursuit of the cavalry, but Li Yan, a colonel of the Xuanwu army stationed here, learned that the bandits had arrived, so he led more than a hundred of his men to attack, destroyed the bridge, and blocked their way.

Pang Xun was furious and was about to lead his troops to attack, but Zhuxie Chixin arrived behind him and attacked him from both sides.

In the end, Pang Xun led the remaining soldiers to endure hunger and fight the enemy. All of them died in the battle and no one surrendered.

(End of this chapter)