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Since the news of Shangdang's decisive battle with the Yan army came out, Zhao Kuangning, the king of Chu who lived in Shannan, began to make preparations to send troops. Zhao Kuangning's original intention was to take advantage of the defeat of the Liang army to attack the northern six states of Shannan East Road. Ma Yin. Ma Yin is the sworn enemy of the Zhao brothers and a die-hard loyalist of the traitor Zhu Quanzhong. For Zhao Kuangning, this is the first obstacle that must be removed if he wants to revive Li Tang.
Ma Yin was granted the title of Jing, occupying Shangzhou, Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Junzhou, Xiangzhou and Suizhou. He happened to be stuck on Zhao Kuangning's way north. Zhao Kuangning wanted to march into Luoyang to defend the emperor. To revitalize the imperial court, we must open up these six states.
At the end of the first year, when the Yan army left Taihang south, the official news finally arrived in Jingzhou that King Ma Yin of Jing was dead! So Zhao Kuangning began to take action, gathering an army of 20,000 to go north and attack the six states.
At the end of February, the Chu army fought a fierce battle with the resisting Jing army on the banks of the Zhang River. How could Ma Cun and Ma Bin, two brothers of Ma Yin, be opponents in front of the brave and skilled Zhao Kuangning? They were defeated in one battle. After losing, the brothers led the remaining defeated generals to flee into Xiangyang City and defend it. Zhao Kuangning then led his army directly to Xiangyang and began to storm the "capital" of the Jing Kingdom.
In mid-April, Xiangyang, which had been besieged for nearly two months, finally failed to withstand the fierce attack of the Chu army. Zhao Kuangning's Yong Yidu first climbed onto the tower and then let go of the south gate. The Chu army swarmed in and occupied Xiangyang. Ma Cun led the remnants of his troops to flee north to Dengzhou. Ma Bin had bad luck, but was blocked in the city by the Chu army. After surrendering, he was beheaded by Zhao Kuangning.
Although the important town of Xiangyang was captured and the Chu army's Northern Expedition was almost 70% successful, Zhao Kuangning was still filled with doubts despite his joy. His doubts were none other than his brother Zhao Kuangming.
At this time, it had been more than five months since the Shangdang War, and the news of the death of King Liang in Yanzhou had reached Xiangyang. However, Zhao Kuangming's life or death was still uncertain. Various messages came in one after another, and there were different opinions. Some said that he had surrendered to the Yan army. , some say that he fled to Yanzhou with the King of Liang and died, and some say that he died in the Bohequan rebellion. In short, there is no accurate belief at all.
So Zhao Kuangning sent an envoy to Henan to inquire about Zhao Kuangming's movements from the Yan army. When the envoy came to Bianzhou, he did not see Yan King Li Chengzhong. Li Chengzhong was currently meeting with Wang Shifan in Taishan. The envoy asked to see Jiang who was staying in Bianzhou. Miao, but Jiang Miao was busy reorganizing the Henan garrison, the Taining Army and the Qi Army at the moment. It was a time when everything was going on. There was no time to explain Zhao Kuangming's affairs. He just sent a Yuhou to receive the Chu envoy. .
The Yan army defeated the allied forces of the princes, and a group of Yan army soldiers became arrogant and powerful generals. The Marquis of Yu who was responsible for the reception was so arrogant that he did not pay attention to the envoys from Chu. It is not to blame this Marquis of Yu, the Chu army was One of the coalition forces of the princes who participated in the Northern Expedition led by King Liang was also an enemy of the Yan army. It would be strange for him to be very angry with this envoy from Chu!
What? Is Zhao Kuangming dead or alive?—How do I know?
Let me help you ask? - Are you wrong? We are busy here. There are so many troops stationed in Henan, and the Taining Army has tens of thousands of people. The entire Qi Qing Army is waiting for our Yan Army to reorganize. Where can I find the time?
Whereabouts?——I don’t know!
Prisoners? - Really no, I won’t lie to you. If there were, the military merits would have been recorded!
Marquis Yu simply answered a few questions from the envoys from Chu State, and then dismissed them impatiently. Before he stood up, Marquis Yu suddenly remembered something, so he sent a message to the envoys from Chu State: I heard that Zhao Kuangming and Zhu Yougong
They were stationed in Zezhou together. But after the city of Zezhou was destroyed, there was no trace of the two of them. If you want to find out, you can go to Zezhou and talk.
Of course, Marquis Yu would not tell the envoys from the Chu State. Zhao Kuangming and Zhu Yougong were probably blown to pieces when the Zezhou city wall was blasted into the sky - this is a military secret, and of course it is impossible to tell the envoys from the Chu State.
explain.
When the envoy returned to Shannan, Zhao Kuangning was besieging Dengzhou. As long as the last remaining Jing army led by Ma Cun in Dengzhou was eliminated, the road to Luoyang would be opened.
After hearing the envoy's reply, Zhao Kuangning fainted immediately. The brother of a noble prince in the country was unexpectedly alive and dead without a body. The instigator was still so arrogant, which is really unbearable! So under Zhao Kuangning's desperate efforts
Under the urging, the Chu army exploded with powerful combat power, and actually captured Dengzhou in one fell swoop and captured Ma Cun. On the same day, Ma Cun was killed by Zhao Kuang Ning, which barely dispelled Zhao Kuang Ning's bad temper.
At this point, most of Shannan East Road was in the hands of the Chu army, but the Chu army was too exhausted and had to stop in Dengzhou. Although Zhao Kuangning wanted to send troops directly to Henan and ask the King of Yan personally about the whereabouts of his brother,
But he is not a reckless person, and has been working hard to regain his strength, sitting in Dengzhou, waiting for the supply of troops and baggage.
Waiting until the seventh day of June, when the edict from Luoyang came, Zhao Kuangning finally couldn't bear it any longer. He became furious and tore the edict into pieces in front of his subordinates and generals!
"Rebel! Treacherous treason! The evil of Yan Ni is even worse than that of Liang Ni!"
The civil servants and military generals were frightened by the furious Zhao Kuangning. They all watched him draw his sword and cut off the head of the criminal, and then kicked over everything that could be kicked over. Everyone was trembling.
After venting his thunderous rage, Zhao Kuangning's face turned red, with tears in his eyes. He looked up to the sky and sighed: "Why is my country, the Tang Dynasty, so difficult..."
"Swear to kill Yan Ni and revive the Tang Dynasty!" The angry shouts of the officials went straight into the sky and seemed to shake the Dengzhou City!
Regardless of righteousness or personal feelings, the Chu army was already full of anger and was preparing for another northern expedition. Zhao Kuangning immediately wrote a letter to the King of Shu, Wang Jian, to contact the Shu army and push northward. After Zhao Kuangning came, Shu general Wang Zong
Ji also died in Shangdang, and the bones of thirty thousand Xichuan disciples were still cold. Even if the King of Shu did not want to expel the treason, he would still go north with him to take revenge, right?
Zhao Kuangning sent an envoy with his own handwritten letter to Junzhou, which is adjacent to Dengzhou. In fact, when Zhao Kuangning attacked Xiangzhou and Dengzhou, the Shu army was not idle either. They also took Junzhou and Shangzhou into their hands.
Compared with Zhao Kuang Ning's successive battles, the attack by the leading Shu general Tang Dao was much easier - the main force of Jing State was defeated by Zhao Kuang Ning, and all the Shu army had to do was to occupy the cities one by one.
The originally confident Chu envoy was frustrated in Junzhou. This is not to say that the Shu army had a bad attitude. On the contrary, Tang Daoxi received the envoy very enthusiastically and with such thoughtful etiquette that the Chu envoy could not make any mistakes.
I couldn't pick one out. What depressed the Chu envoy was that the Shu army had no interest in another Northern Expedition.
Speaking of which, the death of Wang Zongji and 30,000 Xichuan disciples in the battle brought not anger to the king of Shu and his ministers, but fear. As early as after the Shangdang War, Chengdu had discussed how to deal with this matter. Some low-ranking military generals once clamored to send troops again to ask for an explanation from the Yan army, but when the matter was discussed in the palace, the topic was given a cold shoulder.
Avenging Wang Zongji and Xichuan's brother? It's easy to say, who will go? The king of Shu pointed to the ministers in the palace and asked, who is willing to lead the army? No one in the palace dared to agree.
Feng Juan is old and trembling all day long. Isn't it a joke to ask him to lead the army? I'm afraid he will die before he reaches the halfway point.
Du Guangting, Wei Zhuang, Zhang Ge and others are all famous scholars all over the world. They can write books and write poems and songs. They are also good at managing government affairs, but they can only lead troops. Haha.
After much discussion in the end, we decided that the troops would still be sent out, but it would definitely not be the Northern Expedition. Instead, we would take advantage of the death of King Jing Ma Yin to seize more territory, and take the opportunity to find out what the newly rising King Yan had in his belly. To be honest, although the small court of Shu did not dare to send troops to provoke the Yan army, which was in full swing, it was in danger in the middle of Shu and felt that it was no problem to protect itself. Wang Jian felt that he should get in touch with the King of Yan, thinking It may be difficult to take advantage of King Yan, but the most important thing is to test how much wealth you can leave behind.
When Zhao Kuangning was bathing in blood in Dengzhou, Tang Daoxi, who was ordered to do so in danger, had already occupied Junzhou and Shangzhou, and Tang Daoxi's messengers had already gone to Luoyang no less than four or five times. Tang Daoxi was also not an expert in leading troops, but Shu The small and medium-sized court felt that he should be allowed out of Sichuan. Who said he had a close relationship with Li Zhen?
In the back-and-forth messenger communication, Tang Daoxi had reached a tacit understanding with Li Zhen, or had reached a tacit understanding on behalf of their respective masters. The King of Shu recognized King Yan's control of the court and was not too concerned about King Yan's leadership of the emperor's throne. There were many objections, and he even acquiesced to King Yan's coveting of Jiuding. Li Zhen, on behalf of King Yan, recognized King Shu's rule over Liangchuan and Shannan West Road and some counties in East Road. But there was one thing. King Yan asked King Shu to go to the country. No., Li Zhen said, this is King Yan’s bottom line.
Tang Daoxi understood this. Long before leaving Sichuan, the King of Shu had already regarded this as a condition for concession and entrusted Tang Daoxi with full authority to negotiate - although the King of Shu was very reluctant and reluctant to "leave the country".
The focus of the dispute between Tang Daoxi and Li Zhen was the intrusion of the Shu army into the states within the Pass. Li Zhen asked the Shu army to stop marching northward to Guannei and Longyou, and demanded that the occupied Shanggui, Qingshui and other places be returned to the imperial court. Tang Dao Of course, Xi did not agree. As a condition for supporting King Yan to control the court, Tang Daoxi believed that King Yan should give him some benefits. In addition to Shanggui and Qingshui, he should also cede Longzhou to King Shu. They fought over and over again. In the end, both parties agreed to use the actual control area as the dividing line. The territory already occupied by the Shu army would be under the jurisdiction of the King of Shu, but they would not be allowed to cross the boundary in the future.
Although the negotiations were difficult, when the news came back to Chengdu, the King of Shu expressed satisfaction. At least from this, it can be seen that the King of Yan was still very sincere about the peace talks.
Therefore, when Zhao Kuangning's envoy came to Junzhou, he could gain very little. Tang Daoxi even asked the envoy to go back to Dengzhou to persuade Zhao Kuangning, asking Zhao Kuangning to comply with the general trend and calm down. Tang Daoxi said that he could speak in the middle Xiang helped Yan and Chu reach a reconciliation.