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

Chapter 991: Tang Capital is in chaos and the people are suffering. Chang'an Emperor Wu Zhudi

Chang'an, as the capital of the Tang Dynasty, whether it was the Early Tang or the Later Tang, seemed unable to escape the curse of war.

It can be said that "the general pointed to the gate of Guo from afar and laughed, and all the households in Chang'an were at peace."

Countless rebel soldiers rushed into the streets of Chang'an from various gates, burning, killing and looting. The people of Chang'an had to flee their homes again and rush to the Nanshan Mountains, where they lived in displaced conditions.

It has only been four years since the last fall of Chang'an.

As the Daliang Palace of the Later Tang Dynasty, it was the place where the turmoil in Chang'an was most serious.

Near the Xingjiao Gate of Daliang Palace, two of the most elite armies of the Later Tang Dynasty were killing each other.

Outside the gate were the Later Tang imperial guards, led by Li Cunxu's most trusted commander, Guo Congqian.

Inside the gate were, of course, the Later Tang emperor Li Cunxu and his personal guards.

"Guo Congqian, why did you betray me?"

Li Cunxu, who was protected by the imperial guards, looked at Guo Congqian fighting hard in the distance and questioned him with gritted teeth.

"You old thief, how shameful! You are so shameless! What crime did your uncle and foster father commit? They died innocently. As a junior, I have long wanted to kill you to repay my father's kindness. Today, you are deserted by your friends and relatives. This is God's help to me."

Guo Congqian and Guo Chongtao were from the same nationality. Guo Chongtao was regarded as his uncle at the time and was also the adopted son of Prince Mu Li Cunyi.

Guo Chongtao and Li Cunyi were both unjustly killed by Li Cunxu. Guo Congqian was filled with hatred and had long wanted revenge.

"No need to say more, all brothers, come together and capture the old thief to present to the commander. Grudges, love and hatred, wealth and honor are all before us, kill him."

The cavalry soldiers were elite and had been on the battlefield for a long time. Li Cunxu was surrounded by mostly guards who were temporarily assembled and had not been on the battlefield for a long time. They were not well prepared. How could they be compared?

Soon all the guards were killed, leaving only Wang Quanbin, Fu Yanqing and a dozen others. They protected Li Cunxu and retreated to the front of the Jiangxiao Palace.

"Ah." A scream sounded behind the guards.

Wang Quanbin, who was fighting desperately against the rebels, looked back and saw Li Cunxu covering his chest with a black arrow shaft stuck out.

"His Majesty!"

In an instant, the guards were greatly alarmed and were not careful enough, and several people were killed.

Wang Quanbin and Fu Yanqing hurriedly carried Li Cunxu into the Jiangxiao Palace, but found that he was already dead and cried bitterly.

Seeing that the rebels were about to break through the palace gate, Wang Quanbin wiped away his tears and said to Fu Yanqing:

"We are His Majesty's guards. Now that His Majesty is dead, it is useless to resist. It is better to leave and save our lives."

Fu Yanqing agreed, and the two of them gathered the few remaining guards and quickly left through the side door of the Jiangxiao Palace.
When Guo Congqian broke through the palace door and entered the hall, he only saw Li Cunxu's body lying in the hall.

After snorting coldly, he looked around and saw that some soldiers had caught several actors. He then ordered them to cover Li Cunxu with their musical instruments and set fire to his body to vent his hatred.

April of the fourth year of Tongguang in the Later Tang Dynasty
Tang Emperor Li Cunxu was shot and died.

When the news reached the vicinity of Wugong County, Li Jiji's troops, who had originally returned with the army to conquer Shu with the intention of helping his father resist the rebels, immediately collapsed.

Li Jiji was captured by his officers and forced to commit suicide.

Li Jiji had no choice but to hang himself.

April 16

The rebel leader Li Siyuan entered Chang'an and ordered his generals to quell the chaos in the capital and let all officials return to their posts.

The army that was sent to conquer Shu, led by Deputy Envoy Ren Huan, submitted to Li Siyuan.

April 28
Li Siyuan, wearing mourning clothes, ascended the throne before Li Cunxu's coffin and changed the reign title to "Tiancheng" to show that he was the legitimate successor rather than a usurper.

At that time, Li Siyuan was 62 years old. Because of his advanced age, he had to entrust government affairs to Privy Councilor An Zhonghui and Prime Minister Ren Huan.

Kaifeng Dasong Palace
When the news of the rebellion in the Later Tang reached Daxia, Bai Jian summoned Crown Prince Bai Xi and asked him what he thought about it and whether Daxia should take any action.

"Father, I believe that we should remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing circumstances."

"I heard that when Li Siyuan rebelled, all the towns in Hebei went to join him, and even the people around Li Cunxu rebelled to support him."

"It shows that he is very popular among the Later Tang army."

"Now is the time when he has just ascended the throne. He should continue to stabilize all parties. If we, Great Xia, send troops to attack, we will not only fail to seize the benefits, but will help him control the court."

"The succession of the country is not in accordance with the order of seniority, the younger brother passing the throne, but instead through the use of war, military coups and coups as the way to choose the country's crown prince. This is unreasonable."

"This is the source of unrest. We just need to watch them quietly and watch them unleash unrest. Then we can swallow up the territory of the Later Tang Dynasty without having to sacrifice a single soldier."

"If we spend less effort, we will be better prepared when we go south to unify the world in the future."

Hearing Bai Xi's words, Bai Jian smiled and said, "The prince already has the heart of an emperor and knows how to sympathize with the people and the military. That's very good."

The second year of Tiancheng in the Later Tang Dynasty and the fifth year of Chengqian in the Xia Dynasty
When Gao Jixing, King of Nanping in Jingnan, learned that the Xingjiao Gate Incident had occurred in the Later Tang Dynasty, Emperor Zhuangzong of Tang was killed, and the new emperor Li Siyuan succeeded to the throne, he thought that he could take advantage of the internal turmoil in the Later Tang Dynasty to seek benefits.

He then sent troops westward to take over Kuizhou and Xiazhou, and demanded ownership of the two states from the Later Tang court.

The Later Tang court considered the importance of Nanping's location and believed that increasing its strength would effectively contain Daxia's military forces in Xiangzhou, so it agreed. However, it still had to appoint a governor.

However, Gao Jixing said that he had sent his sons and asked the court not to appoint a governor.

Li Siyuan was furious and thought that Gao Jixing was taking advantage of him.

He had just ascended the throne and needed prestige. If he retreated, how would the people of the world view him?

So he issued an imperial decree to strip Gao Jixing of all his official titles and label him a traitor, and decided to send troops to attack him.

May 3rd
Li Siyuan appointed Liu Xun, the governor of Jiannan and Dongchuan, as the commander-in-chief to attack Gao Jixing.

Soon after, he ordered the Shizhong, Chengdu Yin, and Jiannan Xichuan Jiedushi Meng Zhixiang to send troops to the Three Gorges to cooperate with the government army to attack Gao Jixing.

June 13

When Liu Xun was defeated in Kuizhou, Gao Jixing's deputy general Xifang Ye took the opportunity to advance into Kuizhou, Zhongzhou and Wanzhou, greatly increasing the military power.

Fortunately, Mao Chongwei, a general under Meng Zhixiang, led his troops to station in Fuzhou and blocked the offensive of the Nanping army.

However, this offensive also exhausted the strength of Nanping State. After a month of failure to capture Fuzhou, they suffered heavy casualties and were counterattacked by Mao Chongwei to capture Kuizhou.

To make matters worse, Ma Yin, the King of Chu who had defected to the Later Tang, also took the opportunity to raise an army and attack the Nanping Kingdom's Yanzhou and Langzhou from south to north.

In addition, Nanping and Xia State have always been at odds, so it is predictable that Xia State will send troops before long.

July rd
In order to get help, Gao Jixing pledged his loyalty to Southern Wu by offering the three states of Jingzhou, Guizhou and Xiazhou to the Southern Wu, and was named King of Qin by Yang Pu, the ruler of Wu.

In order to prevent the destruction of Nanping State, Yang Pu sent General Xu Zhi to lead the army to assist in the battle.

August th
Gao Jixing defeated the Chu army at Baitian, captured thirty-four officers and officials of Southern Chu, and sent them to Jiangdu, the capital of Southern Wu.

That’s right, the Wu Kingdom also proclaimed itself emperor.

Last year, Yang Pu ascended the throne in Jiangdu and named the country "Da Wu".

Under the diligent governance of four generations including his father Yang Xingmi, his brothers Yang Wo and Yang Longyan, and himself, the State of Wu had already occupied the entire Jianghuai region, and also seized the western part of Zhejiang and all of Jiangxi, almost occupying half of Jiangnan.

(End of this chapter)