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

Chapter 924: War breaks out again, the old king is defeated and the Yellow King emerges

September of the fourth year of Qianfu
After staying in Ezhou for two months, Wang Xianzhi finally reorganized his troops and slightly weakened the impact of his defeat in the Battle of Songzhou.

So Wang Xianzhi decided to send troops to tighten the noose around the neck of the Tang Dynasty.

September

Wang Xianzhi personally led 150,000 troops to attack Suizhou, and ordered Shang Junchang to lead his troops to capture Anzhou.

October
Anzhou and Suizhou were immediately captured, and the rebel army then captured Yingzhou and Fuzhou, and approached Xiangzhou and Jiangling.

Xiangzhou and Jiangling were important tribute routes for the imperial court, so Li Xuan and his ministers naturally could not allow the rebel army to attack.

December

Li Xuan ordered Song Wei, the general, to send troops to stop the rebel army.

He also appointed the eunuch Yang Fuguang as the deputy commander-in-chief to lure Wang Xianzhi into surrender again.

December 20
The rebel army's multiple units failed to capture Xiangzhou, and the Jiannan Army arrived in Jiangling from Shu, threatening the rebel army's retreat.

Wang Xianzhi once again wanted to surrender, and immediately sent his confidants Shang Junchang, Cai Wenqiu, Chu Yanwei and others to the enemy camp to negotiate surrender.

Unexpectedly, Song Wei was greedy for merit and attacked and killed Shang Junchang and others at Gou Jiling, falsely claiming that he had captured them in battle.

Wang Xianzhi was anxious and angry, but there was nothing he could do. Instead, he had to retreat back to Ezhou because of the arrival of the Jiannan Army.

The first month of the fifth year of Qianfu
Wang Xianzhi led most of the rebel army across the Han River and captured Luocheng in southern Jing. However, because the enemy, Li Fu, the governor of Shannan East Road, led troops to rescue, the battle was unfavorable and they were forced to retreat northward.

February
Wang Xianzhi attacked Shenzhou, but was defeated by the Deputy Envoy Zeng Yuanyu, and lost more than 20,000 people.

At this time, the Tang court stripped Song Wei of his military power, arguing that "killing Shang Junchang was wrong" and that his suppression of the uprising was "ineffective."

Zeng Yuanyu was promoted to the position of Recruiting Suppression Envoy, and Yingzhou Governor Zhang Zimian was promoted to the position of Deputy Recruiting Suppression Envoy.

Gao Pian, the governor of Xichuan, was transferred to serve as the governor of Jingnan and concurrently the governor of Salt and Iron Transport, in order to concentrate superior forces and intensify the encirclement and suppression of Wang Xianzhi.

February 29
Wang Xianzhi's army of tens of thousands was surrounded by Zeng Yuanyu and other troops near Huangmei County. After a fierce battle, 50,000 rebels were killed.

Wang Xianzhi himself failed to break out and died in battle.

The remaining troops crossed the river and fought in the south of the Yangtze River, while another part, led by Shang Rang, broke out of the encirclement and went north to join Huang Chao in Yingzhou.

March
The generals in Yingzhou nominated Huang Chao as the new leader of the rebel army, and even raised his title to king, calling himself "General Chongtian". They also set up official positions, drove more than 100,000 people from Henan and Shannan to plunder Huainan, and established the reign of "Wangba".

March 13

Huang Chao led his army to defeat Yi and Pu states again.

The imperial court urgently ordered Zeng Yuanyu to lead the attack, but he was blocked by the rebel forces around Jing and Xiang, and was unable to advance northward.

Then he ordered Zhang Zimian to be the commander of the northeastern camp and lead troops to suppress Huang Chao's forces.

March 28
Huang Chao's military strength increased to 200,000 at this time, and his confidence increased greatly. He prepared to attack Xiangyi and Yongqiu again.

On the one hand, they wanted to clash with the Xuanwu Army again, and on the other hand, they wanted to break out of the court's encirclement, especially Zhang Zimian's troops from Huazhou, as well as the Pinglu, Tianping, and Yanhai armies behind them.

April 3rd
Bai Yi personally led the Xuanwu, Xuanren and Xuanyi armies, totaling 35,000 people, and camped at Taoling, northeast of Yongqiu.

April 4
Huang Chao led an army of 200,000 men and rushed in, and the two armies faced each other in the field.

On April 5, Huang Chao sent 50,000 troops of Huang Gui's vanguard army to challenge the enemy, while he led the rest of his troops to hold the fort.

Bai Yi sat high on the command platform, allowing his deputy Yuan Shentong to mobilize the troops and formulate a strategy for a strong attack.

The Xuanwu Army was divided into four formations and arranged in a staircase formation.

The first group consisted of Bai Xiaoqiang's three thousand men.

The second group consisted of Ye Jinliang with 5,000 men.

The third formation is led by Chen Daniu with 10,000 men.

The fourth formation is Bai Haoyuan with 10,000 men.

Bai Yi commanded the central army of 5,000 men.

Li Kerang, the leader of the 2,000-man Xuanwu cavalry, was patrolling the area. As the sun rose above the pole, the soldiers of the Xuanwu Army stood still, like wooden sculptures.

On the other hand, many rebel soldiers could not stand the heat and staggered from side to side, with some even sitting on their shields and fanning each other.

Even the rebel officers asked their soldiers to open their clothes and sit in the shade to cool off.

Bai Yi took out a tube, which was the long-range fire mirror produced by Bai's Academy of Gewu. It was made of bronze and had a glass mirror inside, which could be used for far-range vision.

Closing one eye, Bai Yi put his other eye close to the telescope, and the front-row soldiers of the enemy army a thousand steps away seemed to be right in front of him.

Seeing the enemy being so disorganized, Bai Yi couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth.

"Shentong, we can begin now."

Yuan Shentong, the deputy envoy of Xuanwu Army and the general of the garrison, who had been standing nearby, replied in a muffled voice, "Yes."

Then he walked up to Bai Yi and raised a small red flag.

Seeing this, the messenger on the side picked up the big red flag on the ground and waved it vigorously. At the same time, the soldiers beating the drums also beat the war drums rhythmically.

The first group of soldiers of the Xuanwu Army, who had been waiting for nearly an hour, were cheered up when they heard the drumbeats and looked at the lieutenants carrying rectangular flags.

The lieutenants looked at the dozen or so lieutenants, and the lieutenants were all looking at the first-line commander Bai Xiaoqiang who was riding on a tall horse.

Bai Xiaoqiang drew the sword from his waist, pointed it at the enemy formation and shouted: "Attack!!!"

"Attack!" The voices of colonels and lieutenants rang out one after another.

The originally neat battle formation was slightly distorted due to the advance, but it still appeared in a straight line.

After walking more than a hundred steps, the army formation suddenly stopped, "Defend!" The shield soldiers in the front row raised their large shields to block the scattered arrows shot by the rebels.

"Crossbowmen, shoot."

The crossbows were fired simultaneously, and a small range of dense crossbow arrows were thrown towards the rebel battle formation not far away, causing continuous screams.

After walking twenty steps, he stopped and fired a round of bullets. After walking three rounds, he finally reached the rebel army.

The front-row soldiers of the rebel army were nervously looking at the Xuanwu Army who were only one or two steps away. Suddenly, the Xuanwu Army's large shields opened, and the Xuanwu Army with bows and crossbows appeared, pulling the trigger in their horrified eyes.

"Ah!" A large number of the front-line soldiers of the rebel army who were caught off guard were shot down.

"Charge!" The lieutenants of the Xuanwu Army drew out various weapons, roared and led their soldiers to break out of the shield formation.

Next came the crossbowmen who dropped their crossbows, drew their swords and followed, and last came the shieldmen who discarded their large shields.

"Defeat, defeat."

The rebel army, which had suffered multiple powerful attacks from the Xuanwu Army, could not endure such heavy damage and retreated one after another.

"No retreat, go back." The supervision team sent by Huang Gui held swords and guns, trying to suppress the fleeing soldiers with blood.

But to no avail.

In just this short period of time, Bai Xiaoqiang's troops of 3,000 men caused more than a thousand casualties to Huang Gui's troops.

Three quarters of an hour later, Huang Gui's 50,000 troops were defeated.

Bai Xiaoqiang pursued the enemy to the second formation and reached a stalemate.

After a while, Ye Jinliang's 5,000 men from the second formation of the Xuanwu Army arrived. The second formation of the rebel army began to waver, but Huang Chao still sent out the old camp to hold the ground and barely maintain the formation.

Half an hour later, Bai Xiaoqiang's troops retreated one after another, and Ye Jinliang's troops took over the entire front line. The rebels took the opportunity to stabilize their formation again.

Soon, Chen Daniu's troops from the third formation of the Xuanwu Army arrived. The addition of fresh troops made it impossible for the rebels to resist, and they were defeated one after another.

Huang Chao stood on the high platform and saw this, and couldn't help but feel that the situation was difficult.

"Send an order, order Zhu Cun to lead his troops to bypass the main battlefield and head straight to Bai Yi's headquarters."

After the cavalry was ordered to go away, a large army immediately marched out from the rebel camp, with several flags and about 20,000 to 30,000 people, which was exactly Zhu Cun's army.

Zhu Cun's troops bypassed the main battlefield where the shouting was deafening and attacked Bai Yi's command platform.

(End of this chapter)