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

Chapter 953: Each town has its own advantages in the capital, and the army fights hard at the opportunity given by God

April of the second year of Qianning
Originally, Li Ye was inclined towards Wang Gong and was preparing to issue an edict to appoint him as regent.

But after seeing the memorial from Li Maozhen and the other two, he immediately changed his mind.

In recent years, Chang'an, where Li Ye is located, has been severely oppressed by Li Maozhen and his two companions.

His dissatisfaction with the three people grew day by day, so he rejected the petition from Li Maozhen and the other two without thinking.

He said: "Li Keyong of Taiyuan and Wang Chongrong of Hezhong both contributed to the recovery of Chang'an. Wang Ke is Wang Chongrong's son, so his previous title should be maintained."

He then followed the decision of the Hezhong Military Government and appointed Wang Ke as the governor of Hezhong.

Li Maozhen and others were very dissatisfied with Li Ye's verdict, and at this time Wang Xingyu also had a conflict with Li Ye.

May
Li Maozhen, Han Jian and Wang Xingyu led the troops from Fengxiang, Huazhou and Bining and marched to the capital to put pressure on Li Ye.

They wanted to interfere with the court's decision-making and gave the post of Governor of Hezhong to Wang Gong, whom they supported.

At the same time, Wang Gong and Wang Yao also joined forces to attack Puzhou.

Li Keyong knew that if Wang Ke was defeated, Hezhong would no longer belong to him, and there would be a roadblock on the road to Guanzhong in the future.

So, he launched an attack on Li Maozhen on the grounds that the three towns had insulted the imperial court, but in fact he was attacking Hezhong, hoping to take it into his possession.

Zhu Quanzhong knew very well that if he allowed Li Keyong to take over Hezhong, the situation would be very unfavorable to him.

Not to mention that Hezhong is in a superior position compared to Hanoi.

For example, Li Keyong and Bai Yi are so close that they can even wear the same pair of pants.

Wait until Li Keyong occupied Hezhong, based on the geographical location.

If Xi Ke can enter Guanzhong, Li Ye might even side with him.

He could go east to Hanoi and join forces with the Wei Bo army to threaten his own territory of Hanoi.

In addition to his grievances with the Xuanwu Army, he was attacked from three sides. Even with the help of Wang Rong of the Chengde Army, it would be difficult to resist without the righteousness of the court.

Therefore, for his own interests, Zhu Quanzhong had to send troops to compete with them for the key position of Hezhong.

May 21

Zhu Quanzhong announced the launch of an expedition in Liang County in response to Li Maozhen and his two companions. On the grounds that Wang Ke was not worthy of being the governor of Hezhong, he sent troops to Hezhong to help Wang Gong and his brothers.

Let’s not talk about how Emperor Li Ye in Chang’an City abused Zhu Quanzhong, whom he had always regarded as a loyal minister.

Bianzhou, Xuanwu Military Prefecture

Bai Banghan walked into the military residence with excitement on his face, and said excitedly to Bai Yi and Tian Weiyi:
"The troops are dispatched. Zhu Quanzhong has dispatched troops."

Upon hearing this, Bai Yi and the other man ignored the government affairs at hand, stepped forward to snatch the secret report from Bai Banghan's hand, and looked at it carefully together.

Three gray-haired old men huddled together, looking at the information in the secret report, with mixed feelings in their hearts.

Bai Yi is already fifty-one years old this year. In other families, this should be an age for him to enjoy his retirement.

But in the Bai family, his age is the backbone.

The head of the family, Bai Rui, is 71 years old and basically has no time to take care of things. All of Bai's household affairs are handed over to the head of the courtyard, Bai Bao, to handle.

Five years ago, Bai Rui finally made the decision to participate in the battle for world hegemony. The next dynasty would be created by the Bai family, and the decision was passed by a vote of the clan elders.

For the rest of the Bai clans, whether to obey the decision of the master family and participate in the struggle will be decided by the local parliament based on local conditions.

The areas that have been determined to cater to the struggle for hegemony among the main families include the Bai's Henan Council, Hedong Council, Hebei Council, and Southwest Council.

Among them, the Zhu Bais in Henan supported Bai Yi in Xuanwu.

The Bai tribes in Hedong supported Li Keyong of Hedong, and the Bai tribes in Hebei supported Baijian of Weizhou.

The Bai tribes in the southwest supported Wang Jian of Xichuan.

As for Bai Huancheng of Qiannan and Bai Yubo of Lingnan.

The distance between the two and the Central Plains was too far, so they had to give up the struggle for hegemony and wait until the Central Plains decided the winner. Then they would submit a letter of surrender and continue to be the Kings of the Southwest and the Kings of Lingnan.

At the Xuanwu Military Headquarters, since receiving the news that Zhu Quanzhong was sending troops, Bai Yi immediately ordered all government offices to prepare to send troops. This time, they must defeat the brothers Zhu Xuan and Zhu Jin in one fell swoop.

"Since the quarrel between the Wang brothers in Hezhong, the envoy has long anticipated that it will definitely affect the two powerful vassal states of Hedong and Henan, and even affect Guanzhong."

"Sure enough, after five months, the situation finally became clear, and even Wang Jian from Shu got involved."

"With Hezhong Prefecture at the center of this melee, Hedong Li Keyong, Xichuan Wang Jian, and the imperial court all supported Wang Ke."

"Zhu Quanzhong of Henan, Li Maozhen of Fengxiang, Han Jian of Huazhou, and Wang Xingyu of Bining all support the brothers Wang Gong and Wang Yao."

"Among them, Wang Ke occupied Puzhou, Wang Gong occupied Shanzhou, and Wang Yao occupied Jiangzhou."

"It can be predicted that Jiangzhou, located between Puzhou and Hedong, will be the first place to fail. Therefore, the focus of this war should be around Shanzhou."

"Shaanzhou is located south of the Yellow River. To the west is Han Jian of Huazhou, and to the east is Zhu Quanzhong who has occupied all of Henan."

"The Zhongwu Army is strong and powerful, and Han Jian will definitely not be able to stop them. Therefore, the decisive battle should be in Puzhou, and Zhu Quanzhong, Wang Ke, Wang Gong, and Li Keyong will decide the winner here."

"The second battlefield was in Chang'an, a decisive battle between Li Maozhen and his two companions and the Saint and Wang Jian."

Bai Banghan pointed to the map and analyzed the current situation to the main generals present, including Guo Huilong, Bai Haoyuan, Yuan Congwu, Chen Daniu, Li Kerang, Bai Xiaoqiang, and Yuan Qing.

"However, our Xuanwu Army's target is not Hezhong or Guanzhong. Their victory or defeat there will have little impact on us. You just need to have a general understanding of this."

"In this battle, our Xuanwu Army's target is the two brothers Zhu Xuan of Tianping and Zhu Jin of Yanhai."

Bai Banghan looked around at the generals, his face heavy, and said, "Everyone, this battle is very crucial for our Xuanwu Army. In the past few years, because of Zhu Quanzhong, we were unable to concentrate our superior forces, so we fought several battles without any results."

"This time Zhu Quanzhong will personally lead the army to participate in the battle in Hezhong. This is our chance, and the only chance."

"If we miss this opportunity, we don't know how long it will take for us to have the next chance to destroy the Zhu brothers."

"And if Zhu Quanzhong gets hold of Hezhong and his power grows, we will be in danger."

"Therefore, this battle concerns the future of our Xuanwu Army. I hope all the troops will fight hard."

Guo Huilong and the others knew that Bai Banghan represented Bai Yi at this time, so they clasped their fists and said in unison: "We are willing to die for you, my Lord."

Bai Yi stood up, and the only person sitting there was Tian Weiyi.

"Gentlemen, among the Zhu brothers, only Zhu Xuan is capable of fighting. If we follow the previous plan, we should fight Zhu Xuan first and then Zhu Jin."

"But that was in the past. We didn't have enough troops and couldn't fight on two fronts, so we always failed because of Zhu Jin's support."

"This envoy has decided to divide the troops into two routes, with Guo Huilong, Yuan Congwu, and Bai Haoyuan as the western army, leading the Xuande and Xuanren armies, and the Huazhou, Zhengzhou, Caozhou, and Songzhou troops, totaling 70,000 troops, to attack Zhu Xuan in Puzhou."

"I will personally lead Chen Daniu, Li Kerang, Bai Xiaoqiang, Yuan Qing and other generals as the Eastern Route Army, lead the Xuanwu and Xuanyi armies, and join forces with the troops of Bianzhou, Yingzhou, Haozhou, Xuzhou, etc., totaling 80,000 troops to attack Zhu Jin of Yanzhou."

"Order the Minister of Political Affairs Tian Weiyi and the Governor of Bianzhou Bai Yu (Bai Yi's second son) to stay in Bianzhou and oversee the transportation of food and fodder for the army."

"Military Commander Bai Banghan is following this envoy and participating in the military operations."

"In this battle, we will attack Zhu Jin first, then Zhu Xuan. We must sweep away the two Zhus with the force of thunder and bring Xuanwu a thousand victory."

The generals were excited and shouted: "Xuanwu will win!!!"

(End of this chapter)