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

Chapter 948: The rabbit dies and the fox mourns. Jingfu swears to fight Zhu Xuan

December

The court appointed Zhang Jun as acting Minister of War, and concurrently served as Governor of Ezhou, Imperial Censor, and Surveillance Commissioner of Eyue.

Li Keyong released the captured Chinese envoy Han Guifan and used this opportunity to submit a petition to appeal for his grievances.

In order to appease Li Keyong's anger, the court demoted Zhang Jun to the position of governor of Lianzhou and dismissed all other officials who supported sending troops.

The first month of the second year of Dashun
Li Keyong joined forces with Baijian in Weizhou to attack Li Cunxiao, a rebel general in Xingzhou.

Seeing the troops from Hedong and Weizhou approaching, Li Cunxiao quickly asked Wang Rong, the governor of Chengde Army, for help.

Wang Rong sent troops to rescue him, but was defeated, and Li Keyong besieged Xingzhou.

early February

In order to appease Li Keyong, the court restored his official posts as Acting Grand Tutor, Minister of the Central Secretariat, Prefect of Taiyuan, Governor of Beidu, Jiedushi of Hedong, and Observational Envoy.

The entire battle lasted for half a year. The reason why the imperial court was able to confront a powerful town like Hedong was because of the army of Zhu Quanzhong and the three military governors.

However, due to the threat from the Xuanwu Army, Zhu Quanzhong was unable to provide too many troops.

Wang Rong of the Chengde Army was afraid that it would be his turn after Li Keyong was defeated, so he worked but did not put in any effort.

Wei Bo turned to Hedong because of Baijian.

Therefore, the only troops Zhang Jun could command that gathered in Jinzhou were the motley crowds from Bingzhou, Qizhou, Huazhou, Fuzhou, and Xiazhou.

Therefore, before the two sides officially engaged in battle, Sun Kui was captured.

Afterwards, the armies of Yunzhou and Youzhou were defeated, so the armies of Hexi and Qixia were defeated and fled, and Zhang Jun and Han Jian also ended in failure.

Zhu Quanzhong coveted Weizhou, so he saw the court fall into decline, while Wang Rong of Zhenzhou did not provide military supplies and just stood by and watched.

He then took the opportunity to send Pang Shigu to lead an army to attack Weizhou, and captured more than ten counties in one fell swoop.

But Bai Jian reacted quickly and personally led 20,000 troops to stop Pang Shigu in Anyang.

When the Xuanwu Army made unusual movements, Zhu Quanzhong retreated.

However, this time Zhu Quanzhong stabilized Weizhou, which enabled him to control the three states of Huai, Meng and Wei in Hebei in one fell swoop.

Together with Ruzhou, Luozhou and other places in Henan, the population of the area is not inferior to Xuanwu and Hedong.

In this battle of Taiyuan, in addition to the dramatic changes in Wei Bo, Qingzhou was also in turmoil.

Zhang Chan, the governor of Dizhou, was dissatisfied with the successor Wang Shifan, so he raised an army in rebellion and submitted a petition to the court, requesting the election of another governor.

Seeing an opportunity to intervene, Li Ye appointed the Prince's Junior Tutor Cui Anqian as the Jiedushi of Pinglu and sent him to Dizhou to become a fief with the help of Zhang Chan.

However, Wang Shifan was no ordinary man. He defeated Zhang Chan, and Cui Anqian had to be expelled. He returned to the court from Dizhou and was appointed as the Prince's Junior Tutor.

Li Ye had no choice but to appoint Wang Shifan, who was temporarily in charge of the Qingzhou army, as the Acting Minister of War, and concurrently the Governor of Qingzhou, the Imperial Censor, the Jiedushi of the Pinglu Army, the Inspector, and the supervisor of the envoys to the two foreign countries of Japan and Bohai.

At the same time, the Wei Bo army submitted another memorial, requesting the appointment of Bai Jian as the governor.

Li Ye was also helpless and issued an edict appointing Bai Jian, the commander of the Weizhou army, as the acting minister of war, and concurrently the governor of Weizhou, the chief censor, and the governor and inspector of the Weizhou army.

February 3, the first year of the Jingfu era
Southern Suburbs of Bianzhou
Bai Yi, the father of Bai Jian, the governor of Weizhou Army, and the governor of Xuanwu Army and Duke of Song, took the stage to swear an oath:

"The Yun thief is hateful. He alienated my brothers and sisters, betrayed benevolence and righteousness, and had no father or king. Now I, the general, will obey the will of heaven and unite the people to raise an army to attack him."

"I hope all the soldiers will work together without hesitation to survey Yun and Yan and restore stability."

The purpose of this oath-taking was to fight against Zhu Xuan, the governor of Tianping Army, and his brother Zhu Jin, the governor of Yanhai Army.

Xuanwu has been very stable in the past two years, with almost no major movements. Firstly, Xuzhou and other cities have been newly annexed, and secondly, the bachelor's degree system has just been implemented on a trial basis.

However, Bai Yi wanted stability, but the others didn't think so.

Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin were worried that their soldiers were not up to the task, and they knew that Bai Yi's soldiers were good at fighting and skilled in martial arts, so they secretly offered a large reward of money and cloth on the border between Caozhou and Puzhou to lure them.

Last year alone, more than 3,000 soldiers left for financial gain.

Even with all the measures Bai Yi took, he couldn't resist the greed in people's hearts.

So he became angry and sent someone to deliver a manifesto to condemn the Zhu brothers.

Zhu Xuan's reply was very rude: "Your soldiers fled because you were not good at managing your troops. It has nothing to do with me. Leave quickly, or don't blame me for being ruthless."

Bai Yi was so angry at Zhu Xuan's words that his face turned blue, and he immediately summoned civil and military officials to discuss the matter.

The generals had long been dissatisfied with this, so they all requested to fight.

It just so happened that in the past two years, because of the provincial school, many scholars defected to the Xuanwu Army.

With more and more available people under Bai Yi, the four areas of Xuzhou were finally stabilized.

So Bai Yi followed the will of the army and the people and swore to attack Zhu Xuan.

However, because he had to guard against Zhu Quanzhong, Bai Yi was unable to lead the army in person, and could only send Guo Huilong to lead the Xuanwu and Xuanren armies, as well as the rest of the state troops, a total of 50,000 people, to attack Yunzhou.

March
Guo Huilong captured Caozhou and invaded Puzhou.

Zhu Xuan led 30,000 infantry and cavalry and stationed in Lihu, preparing to confront the Xuanwu Army there.

March rd
Zhu Xuan fought with Guo Huilong. The Xuanwu Army was elite and the Tianping Army was no match for them. They left behind more than a thousand corpses and retreated to Linpu, staying indoors and hanging up a sign of no war.

May
The two sides were in a stalemate for two months, with each winning and losing.

According to reports from spies, Zhu Jin led 20,000 troops out of Yanzhou and arrived at Juye, intending to attack Jiyin and cut off the army's retreat.

There was news from Bianzhou that Zhu Quanzhong sent Zhu Youyu to lead 30,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Zhengzhou.

There was another secret report that Yang Xingmi in Huainan seemed to be making unusual moves.

Guo Huilong analyzed that he had brought 50,000 troops with him, and only 30,000 were left in Bianzhou. Yuan Qing, who was left behind to guard against the troops in Huai and Sizhou, could only mobilize 10,000 troops.

We must also be vigilant against the Zhongwu Army sending special forces to harass Song, Hao, Ying, and Zheng prefectures.

After all, the Xuanwu Army and the Zhongwu Army are too close, and their territories overlap by almost 50%.

Looking at Zhu Xuan who had been avoiding fighting, Guo Huilong knew that this was the end.

However, he believed that Zhu Xuan would never allow him to retreat so easily.

Thinking of this, Guo Huilong asked someone to call Li Cunqian.

Li Cunqian, the son of Li Kerang, has now left the cavalry and gone to Xuzhou to serve as the military commander, in charge of the military affairs of the three surrounding states.

Li Cunqian, as the commander-in-chief of the cavalry, had a thousand cavalrymen under his command and was sent by Bai Yi to assist Guo Huilong in the battle.

Although Bai Yi asked Guo Huilong to bring out the headquarters of the Xuanwu Army this time, he only brought 30,000 infantrymen.

Most of the rear army and cavalry remained in Bianzhou and did not move, as a guarantee for Bai Yi.

It was precisely because of the presence of these two armies that the Zhongwu Army was not able to act recklessly in Bianzhou.

"The Zhongwu Army is attacking our Bianzhou, the Yanhai Army is interested in Jiyin, and the Huainan Army is ready to make a move. We have already taken Caozhou this time, which is already very good, so I want to withdraw my troops and rescue Bianzhou."

Li Cunqian said without hesitation: "Please give the order, Marshal."

"Our army will have to retreat quickly. Although the Tianping Army is not elite, Zhu Xuan is experienced and may take the opportunity to bite us."

"I want you to set up an ambush in the rear, and wait until Zhu Xuan's army arrives. When the ambush troops are all deployed, remember, do not fight to the death, and retreat once you defeat the enemy."

"Order."

(End of this chapter)