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

Chapter 929: Shatuo Revives and the Old Master Returns, All Towns Gather in the Capital

February of the first year of Zhonghe
The imperial court ordered Chen Jingsi, the commander of the northern uprising army, to lead more than 10,000 Shatuo surrendered troops and Tuhun and Anqing troops to Chang'an to participate in the encirclement and suppression of Huang Chao.

When the army reached Jiangzhou, there was a declaration in the camp that everyone would be sent to Chang'an to be cannon fodder. In addition, Li Youjin had been assassinated by Li Kerang at the end of last year, and the Shatuo were leaderless and in chaos.

Thousands of Shatuo cavalry disobeyed military orders, looted the local area, and then returned to Daibei along the same route.

Chen Jingsi felt that no one except Li Keyong could control the Shatuo Army now, so he asked Li Xuan to issue an edict to recall Li Keyong from Tatar, pardon his crimes, and appoint him as the governor of Daizhou and the governor of the camp north of Yanmen.

In order to retake Chang'an, Li Xuan agreed.

March
When Li Keyong returned to Daibei from Tatar, Li Kerang and other Shatuo people gathered under his banner.

March 25
Li Keyong accepted the imperial edict and led more than 10,000 Han and non-Han troops out of Shiling Pass to defend the king.

Passing by Taiyuan, Li Keyong asked the court to pay military salaries.

However, Zheng Congdang, the governor of Hedong, only gave him 1,000 coins and 1,000 dan of rice and sent him off.

Li Keyong believed that the imperial court was insincere and was afraid that he would fall into the tiger's mouth, so he "forced donations" near Taiyuan and then returned.

In order to wipe out Huang Chao's army and recapture Chang'an, Li Xuan no longer cared about anything else and lavishly rewarded the vassal troops that came to join him.

In the current situation, anyone who can come to join in the fight against the enemy is considered a loyal minister in Li Xuan's eyes.

Therefore, for the sake of the Tang Dynasty's country and people, and to take advantage of the Tang court's banner, they took advantage of the fact that the Tang flag was still effective to gain enough benefits for themselves.

Li Xuan actually gathered a huge army.

September

Cheng Zongchu, the governor of Jingyuan, and Tang Hongfu, the former governor of Shuofang, responded to the imperial edict.

Li Xuan appointed Cheng Zongchu as deputy commander-in-chief of the military camp and Tang Hongfu as Sima of the camp, under the command of Zheng Ting, and stationed them in Weibei.

September

Wang Chucun, the governor of Yiwu Town, and Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong, led their troops into the pass, stationed their troops in Tongzhou, and joined the attack on Huang Chao's army.

September

Li Xiaochang, the governor of Fuyan, and Tuoba Sigong, the governor of Xiasui, entered Wugong.

The first month of the second year of Zhonghe
Tang Hongfu recaptured Xianyang, crossed the Wei River, defeated the rebel prime minister Shang Rang, and took advantage of the victory to march into the capital.

Huang Chao fled to Shijing.

The fifteenth day of the first lunar month

As Huang Chao fled, the morale of the rebel soldiers defending the city was low, and the Tang army easily entered the city.

The people of Chang'an, who had been severely bullied by the rebel soldiers, happily welcomed the Tang army into the city.

Unexpectedly, most of those entering the city were soldiers from the vassal states, and military discipline was lax, especially the Bin and Jing armies who were vying to enter the capital and win merit.

The soldiers took off their armor and rested, regardless of the enemy being outside the city, and scrambled for money and children. The scoundrels in the city also took the opportunity to pretend to be soldiers and loot at will, causing chaos in the capital.

Unwilling to accept defeat, Huang Chao, who had been hiding in the suburbs of Chang'an, sent people to scout and learned that the Tang troops in Chang'an city had relaxed their vigilance.

He became ruthless and sent Meng Kai to lead hundreds of people to launch a surprise attack on Chang'an.

Because the Tang army soldiers had looted a lot of things and were rich, when they heard that Huang Chao's army was coming, they rushed to flee, but they were burdened by their property and suffered a crushing defeat.

Meng Kai chased him all the way, caught Tang Hongfu at Yanqiu Gate, and killed him.

February 3rd
Huang Chao entered the capital again. He was very angry that the people welcomed the Tang army. He allowed his men to kill the people of Chang'an indiscriminately. The capital was flooded with blood, which he called "cleansing the city."

Because of the defeat in Chang'an, the Tang army retreated to Wugong.

May
Gao Xun, the governor of Zhaoyi, and Wang Chongrong, the governor of Hezhong, crossed the Wei River to the south and joined forces to recapture Huazhou, cutting off Huang Chao's connection with Guandong. May 19

Zhu Mei, the governor of Bining, stationed 80,000 soldiers from Jing, Qi, Lin and Xia in Xingping. Li Xiaochang and Tuoba Sigong led 30,000 troops to defend Dongwei Bridge and recapture the northern fort.

November

Li Keyong was summoned by the court again. He led 6,000 Shatuo cavalry and joined forces with Chen Jingsi's 11,000 infantry, a total of 17,000 troops, across Taiyuan and headed for the capital Chang'an.

At that time, Huang Chao's general Zhu Wen was surrounded by Wang Chongrong's heavy troops, and the situation was urgent.

Zhu Wen estimated that Huang Chao's power was declining and he was about to be defeated, so he killed Huang Chao's general Ma Gong in the army and led his troops to surrender to Wang Chongrong.

Not only Zhu Wen, many rebel generals led their troops to surrender during this period, and Huang Chao's situation became increasingly dangerous.

The first month of the third year of Zhonghe
At this time, the court's chief commander had been replaced by Prime Minister Wang Duo from Tang Hongfu.

With troops from all sides gathered together, Wang Duo believed that this was the best time to suppress the rebels.

He then ordered Li Keyong, the governor of Yanmen, to lead troops to attack and defeat tens of thousands of bandits in Weinan.

The court appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Camp because of his merits.

At the end of the month, due to the influence of factional struggles in the court, the chief commander Wang Duo and the deputy commander Cui Anqian were both dismissed from office.

Li Keyong then led his troops alone from Lanzhou and Shizhou, passed Xiayang, stationed in Shayuan, defeated Huang Chao's general Huang Gui, beheaded more than 10,000 people, and stationed in Qiankeng.

February
The Tang court gathered tens of thousands of troops from Hezhong, Yiding, Zhongwu and other places to fight against Huang Chao.

Huang Chao led Wang Fan, Lin Yan, Zhao Zhang, Shang Rang and other troops of more than 100,000 men into battle.

The two sides fought a fierce battle at Liangtianbi, and Huang Chao was eventually defeated. Tens of thousands of people were captured and their corpses were spread over a distance of thirty miles.

The war has continued to this day. As the rebels have suffered defeat after defeat and the food they looted has been used up, many commanders and generals are unwilling to obey orders and are secretly planning to escape.

In order to prevent his troops from escaping to Guandong, Huang Chao sent 30,000 troops to block the passage to Lantian, and sent Shang Rang to rescue Huazhou.

March
Li Keyong led Wang Chongrong and other military governors to fight against the rebels at Lingkou, won a great victory, captured Huazhou, and once again cut off the rebels' route to escape eastward.

April
Li Keyong sent his general Yang Shouzong to join forces with Hezhong general Bai Zhiqian, Zhongwu general Pang Cong and others, and led their elite troops as the vanguard to seize Wei Bridge.

The rebel army could not be stopped and was defeated in three battles. The Tang army then advanced into Chang'an for the second time under the leadership of Li Keyong.

April 28
The Tang troops from various towns entered Chang'an from various gates under the leadership of their respective Jiedushi. Li Keyong personally commanded the battle. The shouts shook the earth. The rebel army was defeated and Huang Chao escaped at night.

Huang Chao, who escaped from Chang'an, still had 150,000 soldiers and horses.

On the way, he threatened to attack Huazhou and return to Luoyang, but in fact he secretly left Lantian and entered Shangshan.

When the Tang army reacted, they sent out cavalry to pursue.

Seeing that the situation was critical, Huang Chao no longer cared about the gold and silver and ordered everyone to discard their belongings along the way.

The Tang army that was chasing them dismounted and scrambled to pick up the items, losing all interest in chasing.

Huang Chao was thus able to regroup his troops and retreat.

After leaving Shangshan, Huang Chao led his army eastward, preparing to leave Xuzhou, and sent Meng Kai as the vanguard to attack Caizhou.

He was defeated by Qin Zongquan, the governor of the Zhongwu Army who was guarding this place.

Soon the rebels turned to attack Chenzhou, but were defeated again, and some of them even died under the city of Chenzhou.

Faced with life and death, Huang Chao came out again and led his troops to siege personally. He finally captured Chenzhou, and successively captured Deng, Xu, Meng, Luo and other places, and then went east to dozens of states including Xu and Yan.

After several months, they finally broke out of the encirclement of the Tang army.

(End of this chapter)