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

Chapter 915: Xiangshan layman opens the Southern School, Shatuo stands on the side and uses shady tactics

Xiangshan Jushi is the name of Bai Juyi, a famous scholar of the Bai family, and Bai Banghan is his grandson.

However, Bai Juyi had no children. His early son, Bai A'cui, died young due to illness. Later, he had to adopt a son from his eldest brother Bai Youwen, named Bai Jingshou.

It was Bai Banghan's father who inherited Bai Juyi's lineage and got the hall name "Xiangshan Hall".

Du Xingguo, who had previously scolded Bai Yi in the lobby, was Bai Banghan's teacher and Bai Juyi's disciple.

Speaking of Bai Juyi, since he was implicated in the Yongzhen Reform initiated by Shunzong Li Song, his official career was blocked and he was not prominent in the officialdom.

However, with the support of Bai Hui, the young master of the Bai family at that time, he was able to gain a foothold in Bianzhou and make a great career in literature and classics again.

At that time, Neo-Confucianism was just beginning to emerge and the Bianliang Academy had only been established for a dozen years. It had not produced any great scholars. The only two who made great contributions were Han Yu and Bai Juyi, who graduated from the Jinbai Academy and Songxi Academy respectively.

After Han Yu passed away, Bianliang Academy finally produced Liu Yuxi, but he was still inferior to the science students from Jinbai Academy. Therefore, Bianliang Academy has always been unknown and was even suppressed by local Confucian scholars for a time.

As a result, people all over the world only know about Jinbai Academy, the holy land of Neo-Confucianism, but do not know that there is also a Bianliang Academy of Neo-Confucianism.

As for Songxi Academy, it was not exclusive to Neo-Confucianism, but a mixture of theories from various schools, making it a comprehensive academy.

Later, Bai Juyi asked Bai Hui to obtain the original manuscript of Bai Tong, the founder of Neo-Confucianism. He spent all day working on it behind closed doors or traveling around the mountains and rivers. Based on his own experiences, he finally came up with his own theories and wrote the book "Xiangshan Jushi".

He re-annotated Bai Tong's "Neo-Confucianism" and formed his own school.

He believed that students of science should not just strive to get on the stage of the central court and debate with Confucian scholars in order to implement science from top to bottom.

Instead, they should focus on the local areas, help county and state officials, develop their own base, and influence the court from the bottom up.

From then on, it split from Jinbai Academy, and formed a sharp contrast with Jinbai Academy's focus on the court and changing society from top to bottom.

In the end, the science students took sides based on their own thinking. The northern school was led by Jinbai Academy, while the southern school was led by Bianliang Academy. Although they were all science students, they refused to give in to each other.

The Northern Faction’s battlefield is in the central court, and they have rich experience in political struggles, which helps the various forces in the court to fight for power.

The southern faction's battlefield was in the local government offices. They had strong governance capabilities and were able to effectively resolve local conflicts, and were deeply loved by local governors and military governors.

Among them, Bai Zhusheng is from the Northern School. Although he is in Li Guochang's court, he is determined to help Li Guochang step onto the Central Plains stage in order to realize his own ideals.

He wanted to influence the court through Li Guochang, and then influence the world, and change the current turbulent situation.

There is a subtle implication that Guan Zhong helped Duke Huan of Qi to conquer hegemony, respect the king and repel the barbarians.

September 15, the 10th year of Xiantong
Although Bai Yi cordially invited Li Guochang to stay for a few more days and even promised that the Xuanwu Army would pay for the military supplies of the 3,000 cavalry of the Shatuo tribe during this period, Li Guochang still decided to return north.

During the banquets and outings during these few days, Li Guochang not only dispelled Bai's worries about him, but also won over several Liang school Neo-Confucian scholars through Bai Zhusheng.

However, Bai Yi knew all this very well and did not stop him. He even transferred Li Yan, the commander-in-chief favored by Li Guochang, to him and gave him a hundred Mo Dao warriors.

Li Guochang was very happy to get Li Yan and a hundred Modao warriors. He immediately appointed Li Yan as the commander of the Zhenwu Army and the commander of the rear army, commanding his personal guards.

He was also responsible for forming a 500-man Mo Dao Du, and the significance of his importance was self-evident.

October 11

Wu Jiong, the rebel general who was alone defending Haozhou City, ran out of ammunition and food, and had no choice but to lead his troops to break out. He died in the fight against the rebels, and his troops were almost all killed by the pursuing government troops.

At this point, after Pang Xun's death, the last large-scale uprising army was wiped out, marking the perfect end of the Jianghuai Uprising led by Pang Xun, with the victory of the imperial army as its result.

Except for the Shatuo tribe and other vassal troops that had left long ago, the remaining 30,000 troops returned to the capital under the leadership of generals Kang Chengxun, Zhang Xuanren, Ma Ju and others, leaving only General Song Liuqing of the Shen Ce Army to wipe out the remaining bandits.

In November, the Zhaotao Army, which was mainly composed of the Shen Ce Army, returned home smoothly. The sage Li Yu sent Lieutenant Wang Zongshi of the Guard to replace him and go to Dongmen Posthouse to reward the returning army, while he himself waited in the palace.

After the rewards were given and the troops returned to their camps, Kang Chengxun and other generals and captains, led by Wang Zongshi, came to the court, where all the ministers congratulated them.

According to the imperial decree, Kang Chengxun was appointed as the Inspector of the Left Pushe, the Governor of Hedong, and the Co-Prime Minister due to his merits.

Because of his merits, Ma Ju was appointed as the acting Sikong, and concurrently the chief secretary of the Yangzhou Grand Military Governor's Office, the deputy ambassador of the Huainan Jiedushi, and the governor of the Jiedushi affairs.

Zhang Xuanren was promoted to General of the Right Guard.

Each department received rewards.

The 13th year of Xiantong
Because Li Guochang was too close to the Bai family, Emperor Li Yi was dissatisfied.

In addition, Hedong Jiedushi Kang Chengxun wrote a letter saying that Li Guochang was arrogant because of his achievements and was not subject to control.

Therefore, the court ordered Li Guochang to be transferred to be the governor of Yunzhou and the defense commander of Datong Army.

Li Guochang refused to accept the appointment due to illness.

Since Li Guochang refused the order, many members of the Shatuo tribe were bewitched by Kang Chengxun, who intended to kill Li Guochang and seize his army on the grounds that Li Guochang had rebellious intentions.

May 27
Zhuxie Shangfeng of the Shatuo tribe received a promise from Kang Chengxun.

The secret letter said that if he could kill Li Guochang, he would help him seize the position of leader of the Shatuo tribe and the chief protector of the Chanyu.

Because the Bai family interfered extensively in the Shatuo tribe and the Zhuxie clan, the interests of the old Zhuxie nobles were violated, and many members of the clan were dissatisfied.

Now Kang Chengxun has recognized their status on behalf of the court. He only needs to seize the Shatuo military power, expel the Bai family, and help the court control Daibei.

However, the matter was not kept secret and was discovered by Bai's spies, who then informed Li Guochang's son, Li Keyong.

Li Keyong immediately returned to Shatuo and gathered 500 men from Modao and 500 of his own personal soldiers, a total of 1,000 people. They captured dozens of rebellious people including Zhuye Shangfeng and killed all their clansmen.

Afterwards, he immediately sent out 3,000 troops to attack Duan Wenchu, the defense commander of the Datong Army, who had participated in the court conspiracy and provided military support, occupied Yunzhou, and proclaimed himself the regent.

When the Tang court learned about this, it immediately appointed Lu Jianfang, the Minister of the Imperial Household, as the governor of the Zhenwu Army, and ordered him to join forces with the troops from You and Bing states to attack the Shatuo tribe.

Unexpectedly, Lu Jian's army was defeated as soon as it arrived in Lanzhou. Li Keyong took the opportunity to occupy the area north of Daizhou and regained control of Daibei.

Because of the Shatuo tribe incident, Kang Chengxun was constantly impeached in the court.

Finally, Li Yi could not stand the court's discussions any more, and demoted Kang Chengxun to be the tutor of the King of Shu and the Sima of Enzhou. The armies were leaderless, and the court was influenced by the Bai family and there were endless debates, so the expedition against the Shatuo tribe had to come to a temporary halt.

July of the 14th year of Xiantong
Li Yi died in Xianning Palace at the age of 41. His ministers posthumously named him "Emperor Ruiwen Zhaosheng Gonghuixiao" and his temple name "Emperor Yizong". He was buried in Jianling.

The new king was supported by Lieutenant Liu Xingshen of the Left Army and Lieutenant Han Wenyue of the Right Army, in cooperation with Xiaomafang Envoy Tian Lingzi, who supported Li Yan's fifth son, Prince Pu, Li Xuan, to ascend the throne, and the reign was named "Qianfu".

After Li Xuan ascended the throne, Tian Lingzi was immediately promoted to the position of Privy Councilor, and he jumped from a small eunuch to one of the Four Nobles (two Privy Councilors and two lieutenants of the Shen Ce Army), controlling both internal and external power.

Liu Xingshen and Han Wenyou were also in power because they controlled the Shence Army and were named Dukes on the same day.

After Li Xuan came to power, he had even less energy to control the Shatuo tribe far away in Daibei, so he followed the advice of Hanlin scholar Liu Yunzhang:
Li Jun, the son of Li Ye, the former governor of Taiyuan, who had done favors for the Shatuo tribe, was appointed as the governor of Lingwu and the envoy to comfort the six states and three tribes of Shatuo.

Liu Yanhui, the son of Liu Mian, the old leader of the Shatuo tribe, was transferred to Hedong and sent to govern the area south of Daibei to pacify Daibei.

Li Keyong was also appointed as the Defense Commissioner of Datong Army to appease the people.

(End of this chapter)