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

Chapter 931: Caizhou bandits sent to the Eastern Capital, Bianzhou defeated the Huainan rebellion

May of the first year of Wende (the fourth year of Guangqi)
Li Ye appointed Zhu Quanzhong, the defense commander of the three cities of Heyang, the governor of Dongdu and the governor of Jidu, the inspector of the imperial court and the prince of Liang, as the commander-in-chief of the troops in all four directions of Caizhou, to lead the expedition against the bandit army in Caizhou.

He appointed the military governor of Xuanwu Army, the acting minister of works, the inspector of the six prefectures of Bian, Song, Hao, Ying, Hua and Zheng, and the Duke of Song Bai Yi as the recruiting and suppressing envoys of the four surrounding camps in Caizhou to help Zhu Quanzhong fight against the rebel army in Caizhou.

The one who occupied Caizhou was Qin Zongquan, the former governor of the Fengguo Army of the Tang Dynasty. Later, when Huang Chao entered Chang'an, he was defeated and surrendered.

In the first year of the Guangqi reign, Huang Chao was defeated in Langhu Valley. Upon hearing the news, Qin Zongquan, under the instigation of wandering Taoist priests, proclaimed himself emperor in Caizhou, enfeoffed hundreds of officials, and established a political power.

The country was named "Da Qi" after Huang Chao to show the continuation of Huang Chao's regime.

After he proclaimed himself emperor, he divided his troops into four parts and sent them out in all directions, burning, killing, looting, and plundering wherever they went. He was so cruel and tyrannical that people called him "Qin King of Hell."

At that time, the imperial court moved to Xingyuan and Guanzhong was in chaos, so it had no time to take care of him. He successively captured more than 20 states including Shanzhou, Luozhou, Huaizhou, Mengzhou, Tangzhou, Xuzhou, Ruzhou, and Zhengzhou, and became the most powerful warlord group in the Central Plains.

Zhu Quanzhong, who was sealed off in Luoyang, was suppressed by the Caizhou bandit army and could not leave Luoyang. He could only barely hold on to the three cities of Heyang and Luoyang.

In the third year of Guangqi, Qin Zongquan's ambition expanded rapidly. He believed that Caizhou was not enough to be the capital of Da Qi. However, seeing that Luoyang was difficult to attack by Zhu Quanzhong's troops, and that Hezhong King Chongrong sent troops to help, he looked for another city.

After thinking about it, he believed that Bianzhou, which was under the jurisdiction of Xuanwu Army, was a prosperous city and the only choice for his capital.

He then concentrated all his forces to attack Bianzhou. His generals Zhang Xu and Qin Xian each led tens of thousands of troops as the vanguard and stationed in the northwest of Bianzhou city.

At that time, there were only 20,000 troops from the Xuanwu Army stationed near Bianzhou.

The Caizhou army's opponents were mostly local second-tier troops, and the only one stronger than them was Zhu Quanzhong in Luoyang.

However, Zhu Quanzhong was, after all, an old subordinate of Huang Chao, and most of his men were former bandits. Although they were elite, they were far inferior to the powerful vassal states that had existed for decades.

This attack on Bianzhou was the first battle against a powerful vassal state in the Central Plains.

Bai Yi calculated that the enemy did not understand his own combat effectiveness and underestimated the enemy to a certain extent, so he decided to take advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold and launch a preemptive attack to buy more time for his own reinforcements to arrive.

Because the Caizhou army arrived in a hurry, there were only 8,000 Jinglüe troops in the city, and the rest of the troops were still scattered throughout Bianzhou and needed time to assemble.

That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Bai Yi ordered the military governor Lu Jingsong to lead 5,000 men to attack, and ordered Li Neng, the left cavalry commander, to lead 1,000 cavalry to assist in the battle.

It took Lu Jingsong only a few moments for five thousand professional soldiers to break through the simple gate of the not-so-large Caizhou army’s camp.

Afterwards, a fire broke out in the camp. The soldiers of Caizhou Army were confused and ran around, shouting in the camp.

When Lu Jingsong attacked the central camp, he met Zhang Xu and Qin Xian, who had barely gathered more than 10,000 soldiers.

Needless to say, the two sides fought to one place. When the battle was in full swing, Li Neng's cavalry of 1,000 people attacked from the enemy's left. The cavalry lined up in Yuan Guangcheng's formation and killed Zhang Zhao.

Qin Xian was terrified and led his men to retreat. The Caizhou army was defeated and arrived at a place twenty miles northwest.

At dawn, the Xuanwu Army cleaned up the battlefield and counted the number of beheadings, finding that tens of thousands were killed and a great victory was achieved.

Eight days later, Qin Zongquan led more than 200,000 bandits to Bianxiao Village on the northern outskirts of Bianzhou City.

Bai Yi, who had assembled 15,000 men, led his troops to launch an attack.

In this battle, Duke Bai Yi of Song, who was 44 years old and in his prime, personally led the attack. The morale of the Xuanwu Army was greatly boosted, and the soldiers saw their commander's banner advancing continuously, and they all rushed forward bravely.

The bandits were unable to stop them. Seeing that Bai Yi was only a few hundred steps away from Qin Zongquan's banner, Qin Zongquan was horrified and fled to avoid the battle.

The Caizhou army was defeated, and the Xuanwu army pursued them for more than 20 miles. Qin Zongquan took advantage of the night to escape the pursuit of the Xuanwu cavalry.

In this battle, the Xuanwu Army beheaded more than 20,000 people. Qin Zongquan's army was severely damaged and had to retreat to Caizhou. The Xuanwu Army took the opportunity to recapture Zhengzhou.

The Caizhou army was defeated. How could Zhu Quanzhong in Luoyang City let go of such an opportunity?

At the end of the year, he led more than 10,000 troops southward, won three battles in a row, successively conquered Ruzhou, Xuzhou, Luozhou, Mengzhou, and besieged Caizhou.

That's why Li Ye appointed him as the commander-in-chief of the troops in the four camps of Caizhou. As for the Xuanwu Army, its energy was not here at the moment.

Although the Li Tang royal family recaptured Chang'an, drove away Huang Chao, and besieged him in Langhu Valley, their reputation seemed to have greatly increased.

However, Bai Yi still saw through the nature of the Tang Dynasty, which was harsh on the outside but reserved on the inside, so he and his staff decided on the strategy of "moving troops out of Bianzhou, first to the east, then to the north, and then to Guanzhong." They officially began to fight for the world.

Bai Yi believed that Zhu Quanzhong's occupation of Luoyang would be very beneficial to them.

One is to resist the influence of the royal family and not provoke the court.

These two things could force him to break with the royal family and deal the final blow to the Tang Dynasty.

Secondly, as early as when Zhu Quanzhong chose Luoyang as his vassal state, Bai Yi saw his ambition and thought that he was someone who could be used.

"This is a task similar to that of Wang Shichong. Even if you are completely loyal, how can you be completely loyal?" These are Bai Yi's original words.

So before Qin Zongquan attacked Bian, An Shiru, the governor of Yicheng Army in Huazhou, was overthrown due to a rebellion by his subordinates, and his general Zhang Xiao appointed himself as the governor of Huazhou.

Bai Yi then sent Bai Xiaoqiang and Chen Daniu to fight in the name of "suppressing injustice".

In less than three months, the two men conquered Huazhou and killed Zhang Xiao.

Bai Yi then appointed Bai Xiaoqiang as the governor of Huazhou, established the Yicheng Guard, implemented the guard fort system, and stationed in Huazhou.

Later, when Qin Zongquan attacked the city of Luoyang, Bai Yi, at the request of Zhu Quanzhong, sent Li Kerang, the cavalry commander, to lead 3,000 cavalry to assist in the battle.

It was precisely because Zhu Quanzhong had the help of Bai Yi and Wang Chongrong that he was able to barely hold on to Luoyang.

At the same time, it was precisely because of two consecutive years of foreign wars that the troops were too dispersed, resulting in Qin Zongquan suddenly turning to attack Bianzhou, with only 8,000 troops in the city, and he had to take risky measures.

Although the court ordered Bai Yi and Zhu Quanzhong to attack Caizhou together, Bai Yi turned a deaf ear to it and only provided some food and fodder to the other side and lent him three thousand cavalry, without sending any other troops.

Instead, he concentrated on recruiting troops and preparing for the next expansion.

As for whether he was worried that Zhu Quanzhong would forcibly annex his already limited 3,000 cavalrymen, or use them as cannon fodder, Bai Yi could only smile.

The commander of the cavalry was Li Kerang, who was not only Zhu Quanzhong's trusted and beloved general, Bai's son-in-law, but also the brother of Li Keyong, the governor of Hedong. Even if Zhu Quanzhong had a hundred courage, he would not dare to have any thoughts about him.

Therefore, during the entire Caizhou Campaign, Zhu Quanzhong did not dare to let Li Kerang's troops carry out dangerous tasks, but instead treated them as guests of honor.

June 5th
Caizhou rebel general Zhao Dezhen sent an envoy to express his allegiance to the court and his willingness to fight against the rebels in order to gain merit.

Li Ye then appointed Zhao Dezhen as the deputy commander-in-chief of the Caizhou Four-Sided Camp.

Also serving as deputy commander-in-chief of the Caizhou Four-Sided Camp was Shi Pu, the military governor of Wuning Army and Prince of Julu.

In order to break the deadlock, the various tribes in Huainan attacked each other for territory after the death of Huainan Jiedushi Gao Pian.

Qin Zongquan then sent his general Sun Ru to cross the Huai River to compete with Luzhou Governor Yang Xingmi for Huainan.

Yang Xingmi himself defeated Bi Shiduo, the military commander of Huainan who was trying to seize power from him, and repelled Qin Yan, the governor of Xuanshe who had invaded Huainan. His military strength was greatly reduced and he was unable to resist.

So he asked for help from Bai Yi, Zhu Quanzhong and Shi Bo.

Zhu Quanzhong's energy was all in Caizhou. At that time, he had few soldiers and most of his troops were Huang Chao's former subordinates. He was unwilling to fight against Qin Zongquan, so he rejected all of them. Only Bai Yi agreed.

In order to win over Bai Yi, Yang Xingmi, in his capacity as the military commander of Huainan, petitioned the court to appoint Bai Yi as the governor of Huainan as well.

However, Xuanwu Town does not border Huainan, so it must pass through Wuning Army.

Shi Bo was afraid that Bai Yi would use the passage through Guo as a pretext to attack the state, so he sternly rejected Bai Yi's request to borrow the passage through Guo.

(End of this chapter)