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

Chapter 971: Jin Guozhi went east to fight against the king, the second battle in Baixiang Cui Shaojie

With the end of the wars between Liang, Song, Jin and other countries in the fifth year of Tianyou, the world could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Ambitious princes are preparing for war, while non-ambitious princes are celebrating and enjoying peace.

However, the newly crowned Li Cunxu did not think so.

He believed that among all the princes in the world, the most dangerous one was Jin, as most of its southern part was occupied by Liang and its eastern part was threatened by the King of Zhao, the King of Beiping and the King of Yan.

The only ally, the Duke of Song, was cut off by the Liang army.

Although the state of Jin is very bad now, the treasury is empty, the soldiers are exhausted, and the newly recruited soldiers are not properly trained.

But if we do not take advantage of this opportunity to expand Jin's strength as much as possible and occupy advantageous terrain.

Do we have to wait until Liang, Zhao and other countries recover their strength before launching a large-scale attack?

However, although he has made up his mind to take action before all the other princes in the world, it does not mean that he has to take action now.

Even if the State of Jin wanted to take action, it had no way out as it had no money or food.

No matter what, you have to recover your blood first.

The Sixth Year of Tang Tianyou

After Li Cunxu returned to Taiyuan, he changed his father Li Keyong's old practice of militarism and massive military expansion.

After all, he had studied at Jinbai Academy because of the Bai family.

Unfortunately, in the Battle of Taiyuan a few years ago, Jinbai Academy suffered a devastating disaster and received special attention from Zhu Wen.

The academy was burned down and the students and teachers were hunted down.

In addition, the Neo-Confucian ministers in the Chang'an court had been massacred.

The Northern School of Neo-Confucianism, which had dominated the imperial court for decades in the late Tang Dynasty and influenced the world's prominent schools of thought in Hedong, Hebei, Henan and other places, came to an end.

There are only two or three cats left.

On the contrary, the Southern School of Neo-Confucianism, which had been deeply rooted in the local area, the Bianzhou Bianliang Academy, developed with the strong support of the Xuanwu Army, which is now the Song State.

There were more than 20 states in the Song Dynasty, with the Bianliang Academy as the core, and supplemented by state schools and county schools to provide education for grassroots students.

The Southern School of Neo-Confucianism was very popular in the areas of present-day Henan and Shandong, and suppressed the Confucian school to the point that it could not raise its head.

Only Lu and Ying, as the bases of Confucian scholars, were able to maintain the tradition to some extent.

Therefore, Li Cunxu, who had received a high level of education, was well aware of the importance of both civil and military affairs.

Therefore, during this year he rewarded soldiers, rectified internal affairs, enforced strict military discipline, and provided relief to the orphans and widows.

A large number of students and teachers from Jinbai Academy who were lost in the wild were employed.

He punished corruption, leniently sentenced people to death, and cracked down on thieves, which greatly changed the customs of the people of Jin and won the hearts of the people.

Once again raised the banner of Jin State.

June of the seventh year of Tang Tianyou

With the internal situation stable, Li Cunxu personally led 5,000 elite troops from Taiyuan to the east, captured Jingjing and attacked the State of Zhao.

Prince of Zhao Wang Rong was unable to stop it and asked for help from Prince of Beiping Wang Chuzhi.

Because Wang Rong and Wang Chuzhi were in similar situations and geographical locations, they always advanced and retreated together.

June 26
Five thousand Jin troops fought against thirty thousand Zhao troops and ten thousand Beiping troops in Zhending, Hengzhou.

Because the Jin army was composed entirely of cavalry, the Zhao and Beiping armies were fooled.

However, because the Jin army had no infantry, they were unable to capture the city, and the two sides entered a stalemate.

July th
King Zhao asked Zhu Wen for help, and Zhu Wen sent Zhao Xiping, the governor of Xingzhou, to lead troops to aid Zhending.

However, when the Liang army reached Baixiang, they were ambushed by the Jin-Song coalition forces who had been waiting there.

Jin general Li Siyuan and Song general Bai Zisheng each led 2,000 men out of the dense forests on both sides. The Liang army was unable to stop them, and the 10,000-man Liang army collapsed.

In this battle, more than 2,000 people were beheaded and 3,000 people were captured. Zhao Xiping fled back to Xingzhou alone.

Without the rescue of the Liang army, the King of Zhao and the King of Beiping were terrified when they learned that Kang Huaiying, the governor of Weizhou of Song, had sent troops to help the Jin army.

The two sides discussed and decided to send envoys to ask for peace.

The Jin army had many cavalry and could not attack the city. The Song army needed to guard against the Liang army in Mingzhou and could only send a small part of the infantry, which was a drop in the bucket. After consideration, Li Cunxu agreed to the peace request from both sides.

In the end, the King of Zhao and the King of Beiping promised to break off the alliance with Liang and return to Jin, and formed the Hebei Alliance to help each other and fight against Liang and Yan together, respecting Li Cunxu of Jin as the leader of the alliance.

Zhu Wen, who was far away in Luoyang, was furious when he learned that the kings of Zhao and Beiping had broken their alliance and defected to Li Cunxu. He immediately prepared to send troops to coerce the two kings to submit to him again.

Because Zhu Wen knew very well that he had no place in the south, west or east.

Only in the north can Liang State expand its territory.

Moreover, the Liang State now also has a lot of land in Hebei, with Huaizhou, Weizhou and Mingzhou as the center, and Cixiang, Beibo, Ji and Shen as its vassal states.

It occupies almost half of Hebei Province.

November

Zhu Wen sent 3,000 troops to station in Shenzhou and Jizhou, attempting to completely seize Zhao and Beiping and no longer tolerate their wavering.

He also sent envoys to ask King Yan Liu Rengong to send troops to contain the State of Jin, otherwise after the demise of Zhao and Beiping, it would be the State of Yan.

The elite troops of the Liang army, Wang Rong and Wang Chuzhi, were frightened and quickly asked Li Cunxu for help.

After receiving the two kings' letters for help and learning the movements of the Yan army in the northeast, Li Cunxu resolutely sent troops to rescue them against all odds.

December

Li Cunxu personally led the Jin army eastward and set up a camp on the north bank of the Ye River, five miles away from Baixiang.

This time, the Liang army learned from the previous lesson and left a large number of troops to guard the narrow passage of Mingzhou, and advanced to the south bank of the Yehe River to confront the Jin army across the river.

Bianzhou Songgong Mansion
Bai Jian received a letter from Li Cunxu requesting the Song army to send troops to join him in attacking the Liang army.

Troops had to be sent out, and watching the allied forces fail would not benefit the Song State itself.

Looking at the current world situation map and following Cui Shaojie's analysis and explanation, the generals had their own ideas on how to send troops.

There are currently three ways for the State of Song to take direct action.

The first route was to attack Luoyang from Xuzhou, following the plan of the previous year. However, Zhu Wen had been prepared. When the Liang army marched north, he had already left sufficient troops in Dengfeng and Liang County.

Moreover, enough imperial guards were stationed in Luoyang to prevent the Song army from stabbing in the back.

The second route starts from Zhengzhou and is similar to the first route, so it can be ignored.

The third route came from Weizhou, but there were two options. One was to attack Mingzhou directly. If Mingzhou could be captured, the Liang army on the front line would be ashamed. But this approach would not do much good for the Song State.

The other two went directly to the front line to join the Jin army. This approach was even more disadvantageous than the previous one, not only did it cause casualties, but it could only win the favor of the Jin army.

"So, I think we can send a detachment from Weizhou to attack Mingzhou as support."

"The main force actually came out from Dizhou, took over the land of Cangjing, and forced the Yan army to return to defend."

"After Taiyuan is no longer threatened, the King of Jin will be able to fight the Liang army. This is also a strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao."

Hearing Cui Shaojie's words, the generals present widened their eyes.

What's wrong with this guy's brain? How come he always does something unexpected?

My goodness, I’m afraid not only Zhu Wen, but even Liu Rengong couldn’t have thought of it.

Bai Jian looked at the high-spirited Cui Shaojie with admiration in his eyes. He then looked at Zhang Nai standing beside him and asked, "What does the military commander think?"

"My lord, you have already made a plan. Why bother asking me again?" Zhang Nai, who is already in his twilight years, did not think that Cui Shaojie had stolen his limelight and responded with a smile.

I think the next military commander will be Cui Shaojie.

In order to support him, Bai Jian even went to the Bianliang Academy in person to ask for the title of Bachelor of the Academy for him, which was an indispensable experience to become a military commander.

Even Zhang Nai held the position of doctor of Bianliang Academy at this time.

Bai Jian laughed twice, stood up, and signaled Cui Shaojie to return to his original position. Then he looked around at the generals and said, "Did you hear what General Cui said?"

"Clear."

"In this case, all the troops will return immediately to reorganize and march out soon."

"I will follow your orders."

(End of this chapter)