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

Chapter 927: The King's Army Returns, the Lu and Zheng Factions Fight and the Army is in Disarray

Outside the east gate of Luoyang, flags covered the sky. Huang Chao, who called himself "the great general of the land", looked at Liu Yunzhang, the governor of Tangdongdu, who had a blank expression on his face and bowed to him.

"Reporting to the general, I am not a loyal minister to the Tang Dynasty, but a loyal minister to the people of the world."

"What's the difference?"

"The Neo-Confucianism says that the world does not belong to one family or one surname, but to all people in the world. Therefore, the world belongs to the Li family, but it does not belong to the Li family."

"The emperor of Chang'an pays more attention to border troubles than internal rebellions, and he values ​​treacherous officials in the court but ignores wise men outside the court. Now that the general has obtained Luoyang, it is truly the will of heaven."

"I also heard that the general has issued an order to enforce strict military discipline, and anyone who invades the people will be executed. This is for the sake of the people of Luoyang. I am willing to surrender."

Huang Chao was greatly relieved after hearing Liu Yunzhang's words. He dismounted and helped him up himself. He looked around at everyone present and said loudly:

"Liu Yunzhang is right. The Tang court has lost the hearts of the people because of its perverse actions. Now I, Huang Chao, am acting on behalf of Heaven. Therefore, we must follow Heaven's will. Those who go against me will perish."

"Pass on my order that no tribe is allowed to enter Luoyang City. Anyone who violates the ban will be executed."

"Understood sir." The generals behind Huang Chao were solemn when they heard this.

At that time, Huang Chao's army of 500,000 arrived in Luoyang, provided food and left. The streets and markets were peaceful, and no officials or civilians were attacked. The people of Luoyang praised them highly and called them the royal army.

November 21

In Chang'an, Li Xuan heard that Liu Yunzhang had surrendered the city and stated that Huang Chao had the Mandate of Heaven, he became furious and immediately summoned all his ministers to make a report.

"Liu Yunzhang is a traitor. I must kill him. Pass on my order. Whoever gets Liu Yunzhang's head will be rewarded with a thousand gold coins and be made a marquis of a hundred households."

Seeing Li Xuan so angry, Lu Xie, the leader of the Confucian School, the Minister of the Imperial Court and Minister of War, the Grand Secretary of the Hongwen Academy, and the Minister of the Imperial Court, took the opportunity to make a suggestion:

"Your Majesty, Liu Yunzhang is a student of science. This shows that students of science are a group of people without a father or a king. They should be dismissed to prevent them from colluding with bandits and causing great harm to the country."

"Bullshit, when Liu Yunzhang submitted the "Book of Straight Admonition", it was true that it was all because of you parasites that the country was in ruins and the people were living in misery."

The speaker was Zheng Ting, the leader of the Neo-Confucian school, acting Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, co-prime minister, supervisor of national history, and chief minister.

All I heard was Zheng Ting continuing to yell at Lu Xie:
"If it weren't for you students who demanded too much, there wouldn't have been people like Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao rising up, and the country would have been in such a state of disarray. You have an unshirkable responsibility."

"Besides, before Huang Chao arrived in Luoyang, the Luoyang defenders had retreated to Tongguan. How could Luoyang be defended without any soldiers?"

The two party leaders cursed at each other, and their factional officials also followed suit. For a while, the court became a vegetable market.

Li Xuan's veins popped up, and he stood up angrily and shouted:

"Alright, shut up, the bandits have already entered Luoyang, and you are still making a fuss here. What are you talking about? Do you think you can repel the enemy with just your mouth?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Ting and Lu Xie turned their heads away and didn't look at each other, obviously not convinced.

"I have made up my mind. Liu Yunzhang must be killed. If I don't kill him, it will not be enough to deter the scoundrels in the world."

"Your Highness, I will obey your command."

During the reign of Emperor Yizong, Li Yu, he placed great emphasis on the greedy prime minister Wei Baoheng.

Wei Baoheng came from a background of Confucian classics, so he persecuted and demoted Neo-Confucian officials. Even Liu Zhan, the leader of the Neo-Confucian school at that time, was stripped of all his official positions and left at home idle.

Because Zheng Ting was his disciple, he was demoted to serve as the governor of Wuzhou.

After Li Xuan ascended the throne, Wei Baoheng fell from power and was banished from the court.

In order to have available personnel, Li Xuan recalled all the officials who had been demoted by Wei Baoheng, most of whom were from the Neo-Confucian school.

Zheng Ting was also able to return to the court and was appointed as the Left Palace Attendant.

Later, he was promoted step by step to the position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, and then Vice Minister of the Ministry of War. Together with Lu Xie, who was then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he was granted the title of Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, became the Prime Minister, and also led the Grand Secretary of the Jixian Hall.

After that, he went through many transfers and grew up, and eventually became the leader of the Neo-Confucian school in the court. He targeted the Confucian school led by Lu Dai, which was the "Lu-Zheng Party Struggle", just like the previous "Niu-Li Party Struggle".

I spoke up for Liu Yunzhang just now only because we were both students of science. But now that Li Xuan has identified him as a traitor, I will not risk offending the emperor and ruining my future by continuing.

After all, although they were both science students, Liu Yunzhang was from the Southern School and he was from the Northern School, so he just had to fulfill his obligations.

After calming down the dispute in the court, Li Xuan asked how to deal with Huang Chao's army.

However, military matters were not something Lu and Zheng could interfere with.

Privy Councilor Tian Lingzi immediately requested to personally lead the troops to garrison Tongguan.

Li Xuan agreed and appointed Tian Lingzi as the commander-in-chief of Ru, Luo, Jin, Jiang, Tong and Hua, commanding the Left and Right Shence Armies, Boye and other armies, totaling 100,000 people, to station in Tongguan.

At that time, the soldiers of the Shence Army were all sons of wealthy families in Chang'an. They only bribed the eunuchs to register in the army in order to obtain generous supplies and rewards. They usually rode in luxurious carriages and lived a leisurely life, and had never experienced battle.

Now that they knew he was going to the war, the father and son were so scared that they hugged each other and cried.

In order to escape from the war, soldiers often hired merchants and poor people to act on their behalf with gold and silk.

Although Tian Lingzi was titled as the commander-in-chief of the army, he was only in command remotely and controlled the situation from Chang'an.

He only sent Zhang Chengfan, the cavalry general of the left army, and others to lead the Shence Army to resist the battle.

The army had just passed Huazhou, but they only had three days of food. The soldiers could not eat their fill and had no fighting spirit.

There is a valley on the left side of Tongguan, called the Forbidden Valley. It can be passed by people, but it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

In the past, when the imperial court was guarding Tongguan, they would often station elite troops there to prevent the enemy from getting around.

However, the Shence Army only guarded Tongguan and did not defend the Forbidden Valley.

December st

Huang Chao personally led the army to Tongguan.

Qi Kerang, the governor of Taining Army who retreated here, saw the arrival of the imperial guards, so he proposed to go out of the pass together to fight with Chao Army in the wild to restore the advantage of their own elite individual soldiers.

Zhang Chengfan agreed and led his troops to fight against Chao's army outside the Great Wall.

The battle reached the afternoon, and Huang Chao was afraid that reinforcements from the government army would arrive, so he ordered his men to retreat slightly.

Zhang Chengfan thought the rebels were afraid, so he took out some gold and said to the soldiers:
"You all have done your best to serve the country. The reinforcements will arrive soon. The bandits are retreating and will not be able to hold on. Now is the time to make achievements."

The morale of the Shen Ce Army soared and they marched forward.

When the sun set, the two armies returned to their camps, and the imperial reinforcements still had not arrived.

Huang Chao knew that the opportunity could not be missed, so he ordered his troops to attack Tongguan overnight.

The Shence Army retreated into the interior of the country, but due to a lack of food and fodder, their morale hit rock bottom.

Huang Chao learned that the Forbidden Valley was unguarded, so he urgently ordered Shang Rang and Lin Yan to lead the vanguard to bypass the Forbidden Valley and attack from the front and back.

December 3

The defenders of Tongguan were starving and cold and could not hold out. After the city was breached, only the Boye army broke through the smaller formations of Shang Rang, Lin Yan and others and rushed into Chang'an.

The rebel army arrived in Chang'an and looted it wantonly. The government and the people were shocked and fled.

Li Xuan fled to Xianyang in a panic under the protection of Tian Lingzi's Shen Ce Army, and the eunuch Ximen Kuangfan led the right army to cover the rear.

December 4th

Huang Chao captured Huazhou and left his general Qiao Qin to garrison there, while he personally led the army to attack Chang'an.

The vanguard of the rebel army, Chai Cun's troops, had just crossed the Ba Bridge at this time. They were cautious, fearing an ambush by government troops, but they encountered no resistance and easily entered Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)