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

Chapter 949: The cavalrymen in the dense forest fell in Caozhou, the once powerful vassal is now in decline

May 16th, the first year of Gyeongbok

Guo Huilong ordered that 5,000 men under Wang Pingshan be left as cover, and the rest of the troops should abandon their baggage and retreat at full speed without any mistakes.

When Zhu Xuan saw the Xuanwu Army abandoning their baggage and fleeing, he immediately concluded that the enemy's rear was unstable and thought that Zhu Quanzhong must have taken action.

He immediately ordered the entire army to attack and strike hard at Wang Pingshan's troops.

Wang Pingshan fought and retreated, but the enemy was too numerous to resist and they were defeated.

Zhu Xuan was overjoyed and ordered his troops to pursue and not let the Xuanwu Army escape unscathed.

Unexpectedly, when they chased them into a dense forest, Li Cunqian and his cavalry suddenly arrived. The Tianping army was scattered and could not be stopped, and countless people fled and were trampled.

Li Cunqian killed indiscriminately and dispersed the pursuers, then ordered the defeated soldiers to gather and catch up with the main force.

Upon learning that the front army was defeated, Zhu Xuan was afraid of another ambush, so he stopped pursuing and retreated to Linpu. He also sent a letter to Zhu Jin, asking him not to pursue in order to avoid falling into Guo Huilong's trap.

May 17

Guo Huilong retreated to Jiyin and received an order from Bai Yi, appointing Bai Zhe as the commander of the Caozhou army and Fan Chenda as the governor of Caozhou, and the rest of the troops returned.

May 21

When Guo Huilong's vanguard army returned to Bianzhou, Zhu Youyu learned that the main force of the Xuanwu Army had returned to support, so he withdrew his troops.

The first month of the second year of Jingfu
Bai Yi sent Bai Haoyuan, the commander of the Songzhou army, to lead a total of 40,000 troops from the Xuanyi Army, Songzhou Army, Bianzhou Army, and Huazhou Army to attack Puzhou from Huazhou.

March
Bai Haoyuan besieged Puyang.

At this time, there were only 5,000 Tianping troops in Puyang.

Zhu Xuan urgently dispatched General Liu Cun to lead 10,000 infantry and cavalry to rescue, while he personally led 30,000 troops to follow behind.

March th

Bai Haoyuan left Bai Xiaoqiang to lead 10,000 people, cut down trees, set up fences, and set up camps on all sides to continue besieging Puyang.

He took the remaining 30,000 people to the northeast of Puyang, set up a large camp close to the Machah River, and fought against Liu Cun.

March 19

In the first battle between the two sides, Bai Haoyuan's deputy general Chen Daniu killed Liu Cun's general Liu Xu in battle formation. The Tianping army was slightly defeated and retreated five miles to set up camp.

That night, Meng Peiwu, the cavalry general of the Xuanwu Army, led a thousand cavalrymen to attack the camp, but failed.

March

The two armies fought again. Liu Cun's troops were outnumbered, and their left wing was defeated by the 5,000-man Xuanyi Army led by Chen Daniu, and their formation was unstable.

The cavalry general Meng Peiwu took the opportunity to charge into the battle line, and the Tianping army's defense line collapsed. Liu Cun was unable to stop them and could only flee with his personal soldiers. The Xuanwu army continued to kill them for ten miles.

In this battle, more than a thousand people were beheaded and 3,500 people were captured.

March 21

When Zhu Xuan's main force arrived at Nanle, Bai Haoyuan's troops were exhausted from a fierce battle with Liu Cun, so they retreated to Qingfeng to set up camp, which was only ten miles away from Puyang and thirty miles away from Zhu Xuan.

March 22
Zhu Xuan's general He Gui came with 5,000 men to challenge him to a battle.

Bai Haoyuan also ordered Chen Daniu to lead 5,000 soldiers into battle.

He Gui and Chen Daniu led two armies of 10,000 people and fought in Puyuan. The Xuanwu army had well-trained soldiers, sufficient food, a high rate of armor, and a high level of training. In just one hour, He Gui's troops could no longer hold out and could not stop retreating.

He Gui was furious and led fifty cavalrymen to charge into the battle formation in an attempt to boost morale.

Chen Daniu led 300 soldiers from the rear yard to surround and kill He Gui. He Gui was no match for the four. Fortunately, he was rescued in time by his subordinates and escaped being captured.

The commander-in-chief was defeated and his troops could not hold out for long; they were completely routed.

The Xuanwu Army chased and killed the enemy for several hundred steps and saw someone leading troops to support them from the opposite side. They sounded the call and returned to their camps.

In this battle, 500 heads were beheaded. Bai Haoyuan ordered the slaughter of sheep and pigs as a reward for the entire army, and the morale of the Xuanwu Army was greatly boosted.

Seeing that his side was at a disadvantage in the first battle and the enemy's morale was high, Zhu Xuan withdrew his troops and the two sides began to confront each other at a distance of thirty miles.

May 6
The standoff between the two armies has lasted for two months, during which battles between hundreds, five hundred, and thousands of people have continued.

However, the Xuanwu Army won more than the others, so Zhu Xuan did not dare to launch a decisive battle easily.

May 10
Seeing that there was no hope of reinforcement, Puyang defender Zhao Jianbing surrendered the city to Bai Xiaoqiang.

Bai Haoyuan led only a hundred cavalrymen from Qingfeng to Puyang to accept the surrender of Zhao Jianbing on behalf of Bai Yi, and Puyang was surrendered.

On May 13, 10,000 troops under Bai Xiaoqiang entered the Qingfeng camp, and the morale of the Xuanwu Army became even higher.

Zhu Xuan saw it and felt anxious.

May 14

Bai Xiaoqiang led his 5,000 men to Nanle to challenge Zhu Xuan for a fight, but Zhu Xuan refused, and the morale of the Tianping army became low.

May 15th

Chen Daniu challenged him to a fight, but to no avail.

May 16

Bai Haoyuan led an army of 10,000 people to fight, preparing to attack Zhu Xuan's camp.

However, when they arrived at Nanle, Tianping Army, there was no one there, so Zhu Xuan retreated.

May 21

Bai Haoyuan led 45,000 troops to Juancheng, and Zhu Xuan set up camp outside Juancheng.

When the Xuanwu Army was preparing to launch a fierce attack, an army suddenly appeared in the southeast, flying a "Zhu" flag. Bai Haoyuan hurriedly sounded the horn.

After investigation, it was discovered that it was Zhu Xuan's brother, Zhu Jin, who led troops to provide support.

With the reinforcements, the morale of the Tianping Army was finally restored. Zhu Xuan himself had 35,000 men, plus the 20,000 brought by Zhu Jin, a total of 53,000 men.

After a military discussion, all the generals of the Xuanwu Army agreed that it was pointless to stay any longer and would only result in loss of troops, so it would be better to withdraw since Puyang had already been taken.

So the letter requesting the withdrawal of troops was sent to Bianzhou overnight.

After discussing with Bai Banghan and Tian Weiyi, Bai Yi decided to cut Zhu Xuan's flesh with a blunt knife.

The real reason was that Zhu Quanzhong posed too great a threat, and he occupied more than half of the Xuanwu Army's forces, leaving them unable to spare any manpower.

With Bai Yi's approval, Bai Haoyuan ordered a withdrawal.

Because Zhu Xuan suffered a loss while pursuing Guo Huilong last year, he strictly ordered all his troops not to pursue.

May 23
The Xuanwu Army retreated from outside Juancheng. The Tianping Army and the Yanhai Army did not dare to pursue them and remained gathered in Juancheng, waiting for the Xuanwu Army to return to their town before disbanding.

Seeing that Zhu Xuan was afraid and staring at the map, Bai Haoyuan suddenly smiled. He called Bai Xiaoqiang over with his hand and whispered to him for a while.

After hearing this, Bai Xiaoqiang immediately led his own troops and Meng Peiwu's thousand cavalry, a total of 6,000 people, to leave the main force.

May 24
The Xuanwu Army was still in Puzhou, retreating as slowly as a snail. While retreating, it sent people to the surrounding powerful families to replace Zhu Xuan and forcibly collect two or three years' taxes as compensation for its own military deployment.

Thousands of households were relocated to the vicinity of Puyang, which greatly undermined Zhu Xuan's war potential.

"This group of shameless bandits actually robbed in my name. This is all my money."

Upon hearing the powerful people coming to complain, Zhu Xuan became furious and cursed Bai Haoyuan for being shameless in front of Zhu Jin, saying that Bai Yi was unworthy of being a son of the Bai family.

But no matter how Zhu Xuan cursed, there was nothing he could do. He could only watch as the Xuanwu Army took away all the wealth within a hundred miles between Puyang and Juancheng.

In at least two or three years, Puzhou's tax revenue was cut in half.

May 25
The Xuanwu Army finally left Juancheng.

Just as Zhu Xuan was saying goodbye to his brother Zhu Jin, several scouts came from the south.

"General, Linpu is gone. Bai Xiaoqiang of the Xuanwu Army attacked Linpu yesterday. Commander Zhu was unable to handle it and died in the city. Only two or three of us have managed to break through the siege and come to report the news."

When Zhu Xuan heard such bad news, he was so angry that he vomited blood and fell into a coma.

Zhu Jin had no choice but to cancel his plan to return, send the person into the city, and ask a doctor to see the patient.

Because it would take the entire army's strength to barely resist the attack of the Xuanwu Army, Zhu Xuan only left a thousand men in Linpu, led by his nephew Zhu Wen, to guard against Bai Zhe in Caozhou.

Unexpectedly, because of his fear of the Xuanwu Army, he did not dare to follow and supervise them leaving the country.

Not only did it greatly reduce Puzhou's strength, but it also caused the loss of Puzhou's south gate and the loss of a great general.

At this point, only Juancheng, Lei Ze, and Fan County of Puzhou belonged to him, plus Yunzhou and Jizhou. His strength was just on par with his younger brother Zhu Jin.

You have to know that he once controlled the four states of Cao, Pu, Yun and Ji, and he also had his younger brother Zhu Jin's four states of Yan, Hai, Xin and Mi as external aid.

He assisted Zhu Quanzhong in conquering Qin Zongquan of Caizhou, and fought many battles with the old and powerful vassal states Wei Bo and Zibo and Qingqing without losing the upper hand, and his power was feared in the Central Plains.

Who would have thought that in just two or three years, he would end up in such a situation.

(End of this chapter)