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

Chapter 944: Mingzhou Zhiliu Houbaijian, discussing the way to survive, Wei Bo came

August 19th, the first year of Dashun

Mingzhou is adjacent to the east of Taihang Mountain, and to the south is Cizhou, through which you can enter Luzhou.

To the north is Xingzhou, the ancient Julu County, and the Dalu Lake is located here.

To the southeast is Weizhou, the military seat of Weizhou.

At first, Mingzhou, Xingzhou and Cizhou all belonged to Chengde Army. Later, Chengde Army was divided into three towns by the court, and the three states were then controlled by Wei Bo.

Then the Wei Bo army declined, and the Luzhou and Zezhou Zhaoyi armies separated from the Hedong army rose up, went east through Taihang, and the three states belonged to Zhaoyi.

The year before last, Meng Fangli, the general of Zhaoyi Army, moved his headquarters to Xingzhou. The people of Luzhou were unstable and were taken advantage of by Li Keyong of Hedong. He sent his brother Li Kexiu to take control of Lu and Ze. The area west of Taihang was no longer owned by Meng Fangli.

Then Li Kexiu relied on the big town of Hedong, and had two great generals, Bai Jian and Li Cunxiao, under his command. Bai Jian was wise and Li Cunxiao was brave. They attacked Cizhou in the east, defeated Meng Fangli, and Cizhou fell.

After the gate to Taihang Mountain was opened, Li Keyong personally led his troops to attack Xing and Ming states. He ordered Li Kexiu and Bai Jian to take Ming state, while he himself took Li Cunxiao and other generals to take Xing state directly.

Meng Fangli was defeated again and fled to Huaizhou, where he took refuge with Zhu Quanzhong, the governor of the Zhongwu Army.

After expelling Meng Fangli, Li Keyong appointed Li Kexiu as the governor of Zhaoyi Army and returned the army to Shangdang to comfort the troops and enfeoff the generals.

Kexiu was frugal by nature and did not like luxury or waste. Li Keyong was very angry about the simple show and flogged Li Kexiu and insulted him harshly.

Li Kexiu was so angry that he fell seriously ill and died at his home in Luzhou the following year at the age of 31.

Since Kexiu became the governor of Zhaoyi Army, he advocated frugality, and the people of Luze were generally satisfied with his administration. When the military and civilians heard that Kexiu had been beaten to death, they all mourned his death.

Hui Kexiu's brother Kegong succeeded Zhaoyi Army. He was tyrannical and lawless, and had no experience in military affairs, so all the people of Lu resented him.

At the beginning of this year, the imperial court issued an edict to dispatch five garrison troops to join the Shence Army, a total of six routes, to attack Li Keyong.

Li Kegong was ordered to select elite troops to participate in the war.

When they reached Tongdi, their general Feng Ba and his followers rebelled and surrounded and killed the commander Li Kegong.

Li Keyong urgently ordered Li Yuanshen to go and rescue him. They fought at Qinshui, where Yuanshen was defeated and fled to Luzhou.

An Jushou, a general in Luzhou, also rebelled, killed Kegong and Yuan Shen, and sent someone to summon Feng Ba to discuss military affairs and plan a great cause together.

Feng Ba refused to accept it, and An Ju was frightened because his army had many soldiers and generals, so he fled to his eldest son, but was killed by wild people.

An Ju's head was sent to Feng Ba.

Feng Ba was able to take control of Luzhou and sent envoys to bring the heads of Li Kegong, Li Yuanshen and An Jushou to the capital. He surrendered to the court and was appointed as the governor of Zhaoyi Army. He joined forces with Zhang Jun, the commander-in-chief of the army, to attack the Jin vassal.

The two states of Lu and Ze were occupied by Feng Ba, while the three states of Ci, Ming and Xing east of Taihang Mountain were owned by Bai Jian, the former deputy envoy of Zhaoyi Army and governor of Mingzhou, who had been labeled as rebels at this time.

Because the main force of the Zhaoyi Army was in the hands of Li Kegong, although Baijian had three states at present, it had no elite soldiers and generals.

In the end, there were only three thousand ordinary soldiers and a dozen officers.

If Feng Ba had not been summoned by the court to attack Taiyuan, Mingzhou would have already been plunged into war.

In the governor's mansion in the city, Bai Jian and his generals and shogunate staff were discussing what to do next.

"Now that General Jie is dead and Luze has fallen into Feng Ba's hands, how can we attack Luzhou if the Taihang Pass is not at our disposal?"

"Besides, there are now five military governors in Yunzhou, Youzhou, Ruzhou, Zhenzhou, and Huazhou. The court has also sent Prime Minister Zhang Jun to lead the Shen Ce Army, and Feng Ba of Luzhou is leading the way. Taiyuan is in danger." "So even if we open up the road to Luzhou, it will be meaningless."

"In my opinion, it is better to hold on to the three states, encourage people to farm, train soldiers and horses, and wait until the situation becomes clear before entering Hedong."

Bai Jian's personal aide and retainer Zhang Nai shook his head and gave his own suggestions.

Many generals and officials present thought that what Zhang Nai said was very correct. In the current situation, it was already good enough to be able to protect themselves. How could they have the energy to care about others?
"No." Bai Shijin, the assistant general of Mingzhou, said:
"Holding on to this state is like drinking poison to quench thirst, which is not good for you. Even if we can hold on to these three states this year, what about next year?"

"Most of us are from the army of Lord Keyong. If Lord Keyong fails, Hedong will be owned by the imperial court or someone else. With just our few troops, can we stop Feng Ba and his elite troops? Sooner or later, we will be captured by others."

"So in my humble opinion, it is better to take advantage of the fact that all the troops are focusing on Taiyuan and Feng Ba's army is not in Luzhou to seize Shexian and Dongyangguan."

"If we can open up the situation and relieve some pressure on Taiyuan, that would be great, and it's better than doing nothing."

As soon as Bai Shijin finished speaking, a general on the field spoke up. It was Wang Cheng, the Left Commander under Bai Jian:

"General, although the enemy forces in Shexian and Dongyangguan are only 800, most of them are veterans. Our army is 3,000, most of whom are newly recruited. Please forgive me for speaking frankly, but I am afraid it will be difficult to defeat them."

Then a heated debate broke out on the field over whether to defend oneself or send out troops.

Although Bai Jian is only 25 years old this year, he has served in the Zhaoyi Army for three years and has learned some battle tactics.

So he knew clearly that what Wang Cheng said was true. It would be very difficult to capture Dongyang Pass with the limited number of troops he had.

If the attack on the city fails and a stalemate occurs at Dongyang Pass, and Feng Ba's army returns to provide support, the situation may be even worse than it is now.

Just when Bai Jian was having a headache, his men came to report: "The Wei Bo army has arrived, and the leader is Luo Hongxin, a general of Wei Bo."

"Why are you here in Wei Bo? I heard that there is civil unrest in Wei Bo and the former Jiedushi's son Le Congxun is besieging Yuancheng. How can he have the energy to interfere in Zhaoyi's military affairs?"

"The people who came are from Yuancheng, or Le Congxun's men. They are not here to ask for help, are they?"

Bai Jian heard the discussion of the people in the hall very clearly. He looked at Zhang Nai and heard:

"Wei Bo is different from Zhao Yi. It is not the Jiedushi who can take charge, but the military representative council they set up, which is mainly composed of Wei Bo's soldiers."

"Since the person who came is a general, it proves that he represents Yuancheng. You may want to meet him."

Then he looked at Bai Shijin and saw him say after a moment's silence: "Now Yuancheng and I are both facing a dangerous situation. You may be able to see that the solution may be there."

Nodding, Bai Jian stood up and looked at the sergeant who had been kneeling on one knee waiting for orders, and said, "Please go to the side room and sit for a while. I will be there shortly."

After a while, Bai Jian came out of the meeting hall and saw a big man with a beard, wearing armor, sitting upright in a seat.

"Wei Bo General Luo Hongxin greets you, young master."

Because Bai Jian held the titles of Deputy Jiedushi of Zhaoyi Army, General Dingyuan, Governor of Mingzhou, and Defense Commissioner of Ci, Ming and Xing Prefectures, he could be called Shijun, Jieshuai, or General.

For people like Zhang Nai who are Baijian's aides and have a personal relationship with him, it is also acceptable to call him Ming Gong or Lord.

Like Luo Hongxin, because Bai Jian is the son of Bai Yi, Duke of Song, he is called Prince.

Or because Bai Jian is the grandson of Duke Bai, there is nothing wrong with calling him Gongsun.

It mainly depends on your purpose and your relationship with Baijian.

(End of this chapter)