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

Chapter 993: Foot disease caused death, please ask Chang'an, Jiangling war breaks and recruits new members

December of the sixth year of Xia Chengqian
In the end, Gao Jixing did not wait for the reinforcements from Wu, nor did he wait for the retreat from Xia. Instead, he received an invitation from the King of Hell.

On December 1, Gao Jixing suffered from beriberi, and his feet bled profusely. He died suddenly at the age of 71.

Fortunately, his son Gao Conghui had always enjoyed prestige in the army, and there were no major problems with the defense of Jiangling city.

However, after the Xia army learned of Gao Jixing's death, they intensified their offensive until they broke through the outer city. The Nanping army had to retreat to the inner city to defend it.

At this critical moment, after mourning his father, Gao Conghui followed the advice of his adviser Cai Chuanhe.

By writing letters to King of Chu Ma Yin and Jiannan Dongchuan Jiedushi An Yuanxin.

He asked them to help him submit a memorial to the Tang Emperor Li Siyuan.

He expressed his apology for his father's rebellion against the Later Tang Dynasty, and said that he was different from his father and was willing to pay tribute again.

In order to win the support of Chu State, Gao Conghui even gave the two states of Yan and Lang in the south of the Yangtze River to Ma Yin.

May of the seventh year of Xia Chengqian

An Yuanxin told Li Siyuan the contents of Gao Conghui's letter.

Li Siyuan took into consideration the great strength of the Xia army and that he really needed Nanping State to cause trouble for the Xia army to the south.

So I agreed to his request.

June 23
Upon learning that the Tang emperor agreed to his return, Gao Conghui burst into tears of joy.

God knows how he got through these days.

If he had not given away the two states of Yan and Lang and received support from the Chu army, he would have become a prisoner of the Xia army long ago.

So he rode on without stopping, submitted a memorial claiming to be the former military commander of southern Jing and the governor of Guizhou, and sent his escort Liu Zhiqian to board the ship from the Jiangling water fort.

Going upstream along the Yangtze River, we entered Guanzhong through Chengdu and Jiange and arrived at Chang'an.

On behalf of his master Gao Conghui, Liu Zhiqian presented 3,000 taels of silver as a ransom and paid tribute to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Siyuan was very satisfied with Gao Conghui's attitude, and issued an imperial decree to appoint Gao Conghui as the governor of Jingnan and concurrently as the minister of the court. He also posthumously conferred the title of King of Chu on Gao Jixing, and gave him the posthumous name of Wuxin.

Afterwards, he was dismissed from his post as the Jingnan Recruiting Envoy, and ordered An Yuanxin, the Jiedushi of Jiannan and Dongchuan, to withdraw his troops and send troops to support Jiangling City.

He also sent envoys to Kaifeng to meet with the Great Xia Emperor Baijian, declaring that Nanping was already the territory of the Tang Dynasty and asking the Xia ruler to abide by the alliance, withdraw his troops, and not damage the brotherhood.

In the court, the officials of the Xia Kingdom were so angry at the arrogance of the Tang envoy that they no longer followed the court etiquette and started to curse at him.

At this time, the censors who were in charge of court discipline seemed to turn a blind eye.

Upon seeing this, the ministers became even more excited, and scolded the envoy until his face turned red and he was unable to speak.

Moreover, these ministers did not curse directly, but quoted from classics and beat around the bush. It was only because the envoys had some culture that others would not have understood.

Half an hour later, Bai Jian saw that the ministers were thirsty and could no longer speak, and the Tang envoy was also shaky and seemed to be about to fall down. He knew that it was almost time, so he spoke:
"All right."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the ministers shut up immediately, turned their heads and stood respectfully, as if it was not them who had spoken just now and nothing had happened.

"I'm sure the Tang envoys also deeply understand and feel the intentions of our Great Xia people."

"Go back and tell Li Siyuan, Jiangling, our men of Great Xia have shed blood and sacrificed their lives here, fighting for a year, and now we are about to take it down. We will never give in."

"If he is really blinded by interests and cannot see the situation clearly, then if he wants to fight, I will fight."

"Emperor Xia!"

Seeing that the Tang envoy wanted to speak again, Bai Jian simply stood up and left.

Seeing this, the eunuch Li Da shouted loudly: "Dismiss the court!"

Upon seeing this, all the ministers bowed and saluted to see him off.

Then they left the court in an orderly manner, leaving the Tang envoy in a disheveled state in the wind, until a eunuch came with several imperial guards to ask him to leave the palace.

The seventh year of Xia Chengqian, the fourth year of Later Tang Tiancheng
July rd
The Tang army set out from Tongguan and reinforced troops in Xin'an City of Shanzhou and Songyang Pass of Guozhou.

In addition, An Yuanxin, the governor of Dongchuan in Jiannan of the Tang Dynasty, personally led his troops to station in Quzhou, where he prepared for battle and aimed his sword at the Tongzhou area of ​​the Xia Kingdom.

Li Siyuan then ordered Fengxiang Jiedushi and Lu Wang Li Congke to send reinforcements to Xingzhou in an attempt to seize the Liangzhou area of ​​the Xia Kingdom.

The Tang army's unusual movements on three sides could naturally not be concealed from the Xia State's Embroidered Uniform Guards, who had been infiltrated by the Xia State.

According to the deployment of the Tang Dynasty, Bai Jian ordered the governor of Luoyang, Yuan Ziang, to strengthen the vigilance. On the other hand, he ordered the general of the Zhenjun Army, Zhu Lingde, to lead 10,000 troops to station in Luoyang to guard against the Tang army's attack on Luozhou at any time.

He also passed the information to Nanzheng Governor Zhu Jian and Tongzhou Governor Kang Yanxiao to strengthen vigilance, and sent 20,000 additional troops to Liang Wang Bai Chao who was stationed in Nanzheng to prevent any accidents.

Both Xia and Tang kept deploying troops, as if a war was about to break out, but in the end both sides remained restrained and only engaged in small-scale battles.

As for the border between Xia and Tang in Hebei, there is no hostile atmosphere at all.

Because the two need to work together to fight against the threat from the Khitan Kingdom.

Therefore, both Bai Jian and Li Siyuan warned Bai Tao, the governor of Jibei in Hebei, and Li Conghou, the Prince of Wei in Taiyuan, not to be influenced by the Central Plains and to guard against the Khitan.

Jingzhou Jiangling City

Although Gao Conghui had the help of Tang and Chu, the protracted battle and the Xia army's relentless attack made it difficult for them to survive.

In the end, Jiangling City was not defended.

Looking at the Xia army soldiers pouring into the central city of Jiangling, Gao Conghui stood on the boat and felt a surge of grief and indignation.

Once you leave, you will completely become a vassal of the Tang Dynasty and will not have any freedom at all.

October 13

The Xia army captured Jiangling, and Nanping ruler Gao Conghui fled by boat and was defeated in Yiling, Xiazhou.

The Battle of Jiangling took the Xia army two full years, during which they lost several generals below the fifth rank, suffered tens of thousands of casualties, and spent countless amounts of supplies.

After capturing this important town in the north of the Yangtze River, together with Fuzhou in the east, the Xia Kingdom now had its own section of the Yangtze River and could train its own Yangtze River navy.

After the Battle of Jiangling ended, Tang Emperor Li Siyuan no longer had the desire to fight the Xia Kingdom. Both sides stopped fighting and the border returned to its previous state.

November 3rd

Bai Jian left Deputy Governor Tong Ce as Governor of Jiangling, Vice Minister of Works Kang Changming as Governor of Jingzhou, and appointed the fifth prince Bai Hai, who came of age this year, as King of Chu, to sit in Jiangling.

The rest of the troops, led by the Left General Bai Shijin, returned to the capital.

Bai Hai, the King of Chu, was appointed concurrently as the admiral of the Jingzhou Navy, and Jin Jianxun, the commander of the Dengzhou Navy, was transferred as the deputy admiral of the Jingzhou Navy to assist the King of Chu in training the Yangtze River Navy.

In order to achieve the effect of one plus one being greater than two, Bai Jian planned to imitate the late Tang Dynasty and combine the navy and the admiralty.

Therefore, an additional commander-in-chief was added under the Grand Commandery, and the left and right commanders were changed to the commander-in-chief of infantry, the commander-in-chief of cavalry, and the commander-in-chief of navy.

Among them, the commander-in-chief of the infantry led the Infantry Department, the commander-in-chief of the cavalry led the Cavalry Department, and the commander-in-chief of the navy led the navy department.

The former Left Governor-General Kang Yanxiao resigned from the post and became a full-time Governor-General of Tongzhou. He was promoted to Inspector Sikong and was granted the title of Duke of Yongxing County.

The new commander-in-chief of the infantry is Bai Ming, the deputy commander-in-chief.

The former Right Commander Bai Shijin resigned from his post and was promoted to Grand Commander. The former Grand Commander Bai Xiaoqiang retired due to his advanced age.

Bai Jian appointed Bai Xiaoqiang as the Marshal of the Infantry of the Marshal's Office, added the title of Grand Tutor, promoted him to the Duke of Xing, and granted him a fief of 10,000 households, with actual fiefdom of 1,000 households.

This has reached the pinnacle of human status.

The new commander of the cavalry was Li Cunqian, the commander-in-chief of Cangjing and the general of the cavalry.

The commander-in-chief of the navy was Prince Bailang of Lu.

In the Grand Marshal's Office, the deputy governor-general and the local governor-general with real power are of the same rank, both of which are of the third rank.

The governor-general was of the second rank, and the grand governor-general was of the second rank, the same rank as the left and right ministers.

The Privy Councilor and the Three-Department Commissioner were of the same third rank as the six ministers, the local governors, and the prefect of Kyoto.

However, according to the weight ratio of official positions, it is common for people of the same rank to have different powers.

To get back to the point, in order to increase the number of warships, we must seize Daxia's water control rights in the near sea and the Yangtze River.

Baijian also set up a Shipbuilding Department in the Ministry of Industry, which was specifically responsible for the transportation of shipbuilding materials.

And in shipyards in various places, there were supervisors to oversee the construction of warships.

The imperial edict ordered the Admiral of the Navy and Prince of Lu Bailang to concurrently serve as the shipbuilding supervisor, to inspect shipyards in various places, supervise the construction of large and small warships, and all naval and naval affairs.

Li Bing, former deputy admiral of the Navy, was promoted to admiral of the Navy.

(End of this chapter)