Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 405: The Khitan Civil War (Special thanks to the book friend this fish_crazy for the 2 monthly tickets!)

Chai Zongxun muttered:

"Jun'er has turned eighteen this year. In a few days, I will issue an order to select beautiful girls from all over the country for him to get married.

As for the matter of becoming a vassal, it is better to wait a few more years."

When Zhou Nuying heard this, she felt uneasy and said:

"Your Majesty, now that my Great Zhou has you expanding its territory and conquering such a vast world, can't you grant Juner any title you want?

In my opinion, the Jiangnan area should be given to Jun'er."

Chai Zongxun sighed in his heart, thinking that only a concubine who was extremely favored by him would dare to say such words.

And Zhou Nuying is one of them.

Chai Zongxun said:

"Jun'er is very intelligent, and his beloved concubine is from the Tang Kingdom in Jiangnan. If Jun'er is made the vassal king of Jiangnan, I'm afraid many ministers will object. This is not appropriate."

Zhou Nuying mentioned several places in succession and begged Chai Zongxun to confer the title on Chai Jijun, but Chai Zongxun refused.

Zhou Nuying said anxiously:

"Your Majesty, are you going to grant Jun'er a few small places in the state?

You promised me!"

Chai Zongxun reached out and slapped Zhou Nuying's naked buttocks several times, causing her to scream in pain.

Chai Zongxun smiled and said:
"Ying'er, you just tend to be arrogant because of your favor!

Of course I won't go back on my word.

I plan to first confer the title of "King of Ya" on Jun'er. After a few years, when the army has conquered the Liao people in the Mayan continent, I will order Jun'er to be a vassal of the Mayan continent."

Zhou Nuying thought of what Chai Zongxun had said, that the Mayan continent was extremely far away, and she couldn't help feeling reluctant to see her son go there. It would be difficult for mother and son to meet again in the future.

However, thinking of the vastness of the Mayan continent, Zhou Nuying was delighted. Although the vassal king was only the nominal ruler of the fiefdom, and the power of governance lay with the officials appointed by the court, the treatment of the vassal king of a large country was naturally much better.

Zhou Nuying said:

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving Jun’er so much.

It is not something that Your Majesty can accomplish in the next two or three years for you to take over the Maya continent.

I'll discuss this with Jun'er for a while, okay?"

Chai Zongxun nodded in agreement.

A few days later, Chai Zongxun issued an edict to confer the title of "King Ya" on his third son, Chai Jijun, and held a beauty contest among girls aged 16 to 18 across the country to choose a princess for his marriage.

After the imperial edict was passed on to various places, more than 700,000 girls with clean backgrounds from more than 1,000 states and prefectures signed up to participate in the election. The preliminary election was expected to be completed in August, and they would be escorted to Bianliang by the government.

After discussing with each other, Zhou Nuying and Chai Jijun, mother and son, believed in Chai Zongxun's words, even though they had never seen the Maya Continent, and chose to wait for Chai Zongxun to be appointed as the vassal king of the Maya Continent in the future. The vassal king system of the Great Zhou Dynasty generally inherited the Tang system.

Unlike the Han and Jin dynasties, the Tang dynasty's feudal prince system was not as strict as that of the Han and Jin dynasties. The feudal princes of the Tang dynasty could serve as officials in the imperial court and participate in government affairs. For example, before Li Shimin became emperor, he was the King of Qin, the Minister of Chancellery, and the General of Heavenly Strategy.

Even if you are not an official in the court, you can still be the governor of a state or the governor of a state.

Either actual or remote leadership. For example, before being made the crown prince, Emperor Gaozong of Tang was the Prince of Jin and the remote commander-in-chief of Jinzhou. During the reign of Emperor Taizong, his third son, Li Ke, was granted the title of Prince of Wu and appointed as the commander-in-chief of Ansui, Wenmian, and restored the military affairs of the five states, and the governor of Anzhou. Later, he was changed to the commander-in-chief of Anzhou.

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, people who had made contributions, whether they were members of the royal family or others, were all granted the title of prince. For example, Guo Ziyi, the Prince of Fenyang, and Li Guangbi, the Prince of Linhuai, were granted the title of prince for quelling the "Anshi Rebellion".

In the Tang Dynasty, except for the emperor's sons who were granted the title of vassal king, the other vassal kings were succeeded by the crown prince of Chu, and the others were made princes of counties. It is interesting that many princes of the Tang Dynasty died after two generations.

Starting from the Tang Dynasty, a one-character king was called a prince, and a two-character king was called a county prince.

On June 7, the 31st year of Kaixi, news from the Khitans came back.

The pro-Zhou and anti-Zhou factions of the Western King Lei Na and the general Li Jiqian in the court of Khitan had been fighting for more than half a year. In order to ensure the safety of the Western King, at the suggestion of Zhang Yong, Lei Na took his mother and concubine back to the Afu tribe on the banks of the Afu River in the southwest of Khitan on the pretext of visiting his relatives.

Although Li Jiqian and his faction strongly opposed it, King Thor had already received news that the Great Zhou Empire had surrounded Bukhara, the capital of the Samanid Empire in West Asia. He did not dare to break with King Reina of the West who was supported by the Great Zhou, so he did not stop it.

As Thor hesitated for a long time, the court officials in the country became increasingly divided, and in the end, the number of people in Li Jiqian's faction, who were good at bribing people with money, increased.

Li Jiqian also lured Crown Prince Mo'ao to join his faction on the grounds of supporting the Crown Prince's succession to the throne and dealing with the rising power of the Western King.

In early April of the 31st year of Kaixi, Li Jiqian saw that his faction was powerful in the court, so he secretly persuaded the prime minister, the general and other important officials, and finally decided to launch a coup to remove King Sol.

On April 13, at the instigation of the prime minister and others, Thor decided to lead 100,000 imperial troops to the North Sea (Lake Baikal) area to hunt and relax.

After two days of hunting, Li Jiqian suddenly launched an uprising. Together with the prime minister, the general and other ministers, he led 60,000 troops to attack Sol in the imperial camp.

Thor was caught off guard and led 40,000 loyal guards to fight desperately. After three days of fierce fighting, he led his troops to break through after being defeated.

After Zhang Yong and others learned about it, they immediately led 3,000 Longxiang Guards and 50,000 coalition forces including Afu to rescue Thor.

On April 22, Sol led more than 20,000 remaining soldiers to escape to the outskirts of Yaqingshan City in the royal court. He wanted to mobilize 300,000 imperial guards in the city to wipe out Li Jiqian, but he did not expect that the prime minister and the general who stayed in the royal court had also launched a rebellion. The faction in Yaqingshan that supported King Sol and the faction that supported Li Jiqian fought bloody battles in the capital for several days. The city was in chaos, the soldiers looted and killed the people, and the city gates were guarded by Li Jiqian's people, who refused to open the gates to let Sol enter the city.

Saul had no choice but to be chased by the rebels led by Li Jiqian, and was completely wiped out two days later. Saul died in the battle.

By the time Zhang Yong and others arrived with their troops, Li Jiqian had basically taken control of Wang Tingya Qingshan, made Crown Prince Mo'ao the new king, controlled the government, and identified Western King Reina and Afubu and others as a rebellious party that colluded with the Great Zhou.

Zhang Yong gathered more than 100,000 Khitan soldiers and civilians loyal to King Sol who had escaped from Yaqing Mountain, and led his army to take Taishet, the second largest city in Khitan, more than 300 miles to the east, as a base. He supported King Reina of the West as the new king and raised the banner of attacking the traitor Li Jiqian and avenging King Sol.

Li Jiqian sent an army of 200,000 to attack Taishete, which was occupied by Zhang Yong. However, Zhang Yong used the Longxiang Guard to defend the city, and they were unable to win.

As a result, the various prefectures in the Khitan Kingdom also took sides, with about half of them joining Zhang Yong and Li Jiqian respectively. For a time, the Khitan Kingdom was filled with civil wars and endless fighting.

The Khitans originally had an army of 700,000 men. Since the civil strife, more than 200,000 men have died. More than 300,000 troops, mainly imperial guards, are in the hands of Li Jiqian, and nearly 200,000 are under the command of Zhang Yong, who supports Reina.

After reading the memorial, Chai Zongxun discussed with the ministers in the court for a few days and concluded that since the Khitans were currently in the midst of an endless civil war and their strength had been greatly weakened, tens of thousands of Longxiang troops were enough to eliminate Li Jiqian.

Chai Zongxun therefore issued an order to stop the Buzhou governor Fu Zhaoyuan from leading 60,000 Longxiang garrison troops into the territory of Kyrgyzstan to support Zhang Yong and annihilate Li Jiqian and other rebels as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)